Do you remember when you first started knitting and you found that one project that made you doubt whether you will ever be able to make it yourself? When I saw the Peacock Feathers shawl and read what some people say about it, at first I wasn’t sure if I would ever be good enough to make one. I heard that lace charts were hard to follow and that this one was even more difficult since for the other half you have to read the chart backwards and reverse everything in your head. As I became more advanced with my knitting I found myself being drawn back to this shawl. The push to finally make this shawl came when I received the pattern in a swap. At the time I was knitting my mom’s Garden Party shawl so I told myself as a reward for finishing her shawl I would be able to cast on for Peacock. Moments after I finished her shawl I began Peacock but then the accident happened and everything came to a screeching halt. As I healed I found that just after Christmas I could finally grasp the needles without too much pain, and the lightness of the yarn allowed me to knit a row here and there over the course of a few weeks. It wasn't until January that I really started to make any headway and in March I was rewarded with a beautiful shawl.
The pattern is wonderfully written with great illustrations on how to do the crochet bind off. Since I'm not all that consistent with crochet I knew that I needed to do the bind off in one sitting if I hoped to get the loops anywhere near the same size. Just be forewarned, bind off takes a long time! It took me nearly three hours to bind off all those little stitches. After seeing many knitter's very large Peacock shawl I decided to go down a few needle sizes to a US2. I knit very tightly so for me a 2 is almost like knitting on a 0. Being that I'm only 5'3" I didn't want this shawl to be as large as the given measurements, it would be way too unruly to wear. Instead it turned out to be just the right size for me and I and absolutely in love!
Pattern: Peacock Feathers Shawl
Needles: Addi Turbo Lace size 2.75mm
Yarn: Perchance to Knit in Midnight Rainbow
Started Dec 4, 2008
Finished March 29, 2009
Size: 40" from nape to point, 70" from end to end.
2 comments:
Well done and thank you for posting this Christine, My first reaction was 'Wow'. I love the fact that it's made in black, I love the size of it (big enough even knit on #2s) and I love the peacock tail pattern.
Holy crapola ... that's one beautiful shawl!
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