My mother is going on a cruise through the Mediterranean in the spring. When she and my father stop in Rome, they plan on seeing the Vatican. There, to get into it, women need to be modestly dressed and cover their heads with shawls and the like upon entrance. I thought this yarn and pattern would be perfect for her - plus it would keep her warm in the air conditioning on board!

I’m using sport weight, which is between the fingering and dk weights called for in the pattern. Therefore, in order to stretch my yardage and make this shawl as large as possible, I’m knitting with the larger-sized needles and trying the larger version. Based on the people who’ve knit with this pattern and similar yarn, it seems I might be able to eak more out of it than the yardage recommendations might suggest. Wish me luck!

Tonight I am so proud of myself. I hit the end of the second row of my lace and came out with a wrong number. I tinked back to the halfway mark and reknit it just to be sure all of my other stitches were correct. I thought I’d have to go back two rows since I obviously had dropped a stitch somewhere (a yarnover, I reasoned, since there were no dangling bits). Then, after cleverly thinking about it for a bit, I realized where exactly the mistake had come in, a figured out how to drop down two rows and pick up a yarnover! This is the first time I’ve been able to actually find and pick up a dropped yarnover - I’m just so damn pleased.

I ran into problems near the end. I’d miscalculated many months before when I conceived of this project idea, and never went back and doublechecked things before casting on. I should have knit the small, not the large, as I am 7-8 rows short of yarn. I decided to scrap the little eyelets that extend out past the triangle and just end the pattern early. I actually cast-off once and discovered that my binding was so tight it was ridiculous, and when I tried the lovely stretchy bind-off recommended for the Cleite pattern, I ran out of yarn before the halfway point! Sigh. I had to tink back two more rows, to the very tip of the last triangle, and then I had plenty of room for the cast-off edge. The Cleite edging was used again in the final piece, but I think it might have been too stretchy. Ah well.

Also, in blocking I discovered that my first k1, yo on the RS rows were horrible loose, which made blocking painful. It took two whole hours crawling around like I was praying to Mecca before I had hidden the nasty looseness somewhat. I found that pulling out my yardstick and using that to help me block helped immensely. The cats were, of course, greatly intrigued - every time I turned around they had moved, lying there half-asleep like they hadn’t just crept closer to investigate. The room was blocked off for the night. I could only imagine what sort of grand temptation that would be for them.

I finished this shawl just in time for Mother’s Day! My mother cried when I gave it to her. She knew I was knitting it and was just so overwhelmed that it was for her. Win! Then she used it as an example in her Children’s Story in church. She held up the shawl to explain what children can do for their parents. While the congregation was oohing and ahhing, little Bella, precocious as ever, piped up in a voice that could be heard clear in the balcony, “It has holes in it!” The congregation roared with laughter. Not to be outdone by a 3-year-old, my mother quickly replied, “That’s because it’s a holy shawl!” It was a hilarious morning.We photographed the shawl in my grandmother’s garden, and then when it got too cold to stand out there, we ran inside and I tricked my mother into a photograph. Ha!