Although this pale violet is not the colour I want this shawl in, I still bought it - to treat myself to something special. I’m going to dye it black when I’m done with knitting.
Also, after swatching I decided that the yarn was too thick, so I removed one strand (of three). That’s quite tedious work, but since the skeins are only 25g, it’s manageable.

I purchased the beads at www.wingsofglass.de .

14 August: I cast on, and I managed to do the ring cast on properly already at the second try. I finished the first ball of yarn, which lasted for almost all of the bleeding heart pattern.

15 August: Half of the madeira pattern done - but I discovered a mistake, and I’m currently ripping back a few rows.

18 August: I caught up to where I was before I had to rip back.

19 August: I’m done with the Madeira pattern - now I have to wait until the beads arrive.

24 August: The beads are here!

25 August: The yo, k2tog rows are endless … Actually I planned to wear the shawl to a vernissage next Friday, but I’m absolutely sure that I won’t finish in time.

5 September: I was running out of beads, so I had to order some more… still waiting for them to arrive.

12 September: The beads arrived a few days ago, I strung some of them on the yarn and started to knit again. So far, I’ve done 15 rows of the yo, k2tog section. I’m going to do half of the 5.5 mm needles rows with 5mm needles, the other half with 6 mm needles, as it’s terribly difficult to get 5.5 mm needles here in Europe. Instead of the 6.5 mm needles, I’ll use 7 mm. But that’s still quite some work until I’ll get there …

21 September:
35 rows of the yo, k2tog section … but it’s goint faster than I thought at first, and now I’m already very much in love with this peace.

4 October:
I switched to the next-larger needle size at the weekend. 9 more rows to go to the last increase! Finishing this thing is now within reach! And what can I say: I absolutely love it. The drape of the fabric would be amazing without the beads in it, but with the beads - gorgous! I’m even considering to leave it the colour it is now.

10 October: I ran out of yarn during binding off. So I still have about 50-100 stitches on the needle - but then I’m done!

12 October: I’m done!! I bound off the last few stitches and weaved in all the loose ends. Now I just need to dye and block it! So happy about this!