I finished Emily Ross’ Haruni Shawl last night at about 11:25 p.m. Watched a marathon session of Ken Burns’ “The Civil War” on PBS – they finally stopped asking me for more money – and I added the last bead and cast off the last stitch. Here’s a picture right off the needles:

Haruni - Off the Needles

I thoroughly enjoyed this very fine pattern. BUT. I bought one skein of Cascade Yarn’s Heritage Silk in color Lilac and really thought I could make it to the end. Okay, really HOPED I could make this a one-skein wonder. Alas. I got ONE-THIRD of the way through the BIND OFF and then I RAN OUT OF YARN. UGH!!!!!!!!!! Fortunately, I had another skein. I was prepared for this. Emily says you need 460 yards and I had 437. But as every knitter’s tension is different, I hoped I might make it. I could have done one less chart repeat of chart A, but for my first one, I wanted to do it as designed.

I immediately went to block the shawl:

Blocking the Shawl

Compare the two pictures above to see how much the shawl relaxes and grows in the wetblocking process. Here is a picture of the center of the shawl, a pattern I have seen in both the Kernel Scarf on Knitty.com and in Nancy Bush’s Knitted Lace of Estonia. I love it . . . .

Center Leaf Motif

I think Nancy calls it the lilac leaf motif. How appropriate for my yarn and the fact that my two lilac bushes are in bloom.

I added beads to this pattern on the border. I used almost a whole tube of size 8 transparent cubes with an aurora borealis finish, attaching them with a size 12 tiny crochet hook on the right side of the work.

Beaded Border

I will lead a knitalong of this pattern beginning April 6 and continuing on April 20 at K2Tog, 1325 Solano Ave. in Albany, CA. If you’re around and you wanna joina fun buncha women, come on by. We start at 6:30 !