Moonfleet - Finished!

And here it is - the finished Moonfleet shawl.  It is incredibly hard to get good beauty shots of this shawl, especially with the overcast day we are having here.  It is wonderfully light and ethereal, just the effect that I was going for.

Pattern - Moonfleet, by Janine Le Cras, available at The Unique Sheep, or on Ravelry
Yarn - The Unique Sheep Eos in Mermaid.  I used about 800 yards.
Beads - size 8 Silver-lined Ceylon Alabaster from Earth Faire and Silver-lined Aqua Magatamas (long 4x7 mm), also from Earth Faire.  (When you select the beads option at The Unique Sheep, Ellen of Earth Faire selects the beads to go with your yarn.  It is great fun seeing what she comes up with.)

Moonfleet - Clue 8

I am so excited!  I finished up Clue 8 last night, now all I have to do is the border and the shawl will be done.  I worked this clue a little at a time, 2 repeats on Tuesday, 2 repeats on Wednesday, half a repeat on Thursday (I was fighting off a migraine) and finished up on Friday.  It wasn't too bad, taken in little pieces like that.  I still don't like the purl two together through the back leg, but there were only two rows that I had to do that on.  Thank goodness for Addi Turbo lace needles, nice and pointy.  I have already wound the first skein of my yarn for Through the Looking Glass and have the knitting needles standing by.

Moonfleet - Clue 7

So I was all set for an easy penultimate clue but when I got to the last part of Clue 7, the part that transitions to the next clue, I discovered lace stitching on both right side and wrong side rows.  And, to make it even worse, there were purl two together through the back leg.  Fortunately the actual lace motif is only 5 rows, and only 2 of those are wrong side rows.  The other rows are easy - only one row with beading - and the rows are not long and the pattern is an easy one.  So, on to the penultimate clue.  I might even finish this up by the weekend at which point I will continue my efforts to catch up on The Unique Sheep knit-alongs.  Next up, Through the Looking Glass.

Moonfleet - Clue 6

Finished up Clue 6 this afternoon.  An easy knit.  Clue 7 consists of one more repeat of the King Charles Diamond Pattern (the clue 6 pattern) and then a transition chart and then I will be on to the last chart before the border.  I love this yarn (Eos, by The Unique Sheep), it is one of my favorite lace weight yarns.  I am seriously contemplating knitting another Evenstar shawl in the Aubergine Eos that I have in my stash.  I knit my first Evenstar out of pure silk, and I am not sure that I am sold on pure silk for lace, I think I prefer a wool/silk blend, it gives you the best of both worlds.

Moonfleet - Clue 5

Last night I finished up Clue 5 of Moonfleet.  This was a short clue and the knitting was easy after I finished the fourth repeat of the Diamond in the Well Pattern.  I am just over half way done now.  I have really been enjoying this project.  The combination of the lace pattern, the yarn and the beads are all just coming together so perfectly.  It is always hard to choose the yarn when participating in a Mystery KAL because you don't know what it will look like and some patterns just call out (in my mind at least) for certain colors.  I am always relieved when things turn out well.  I also like the fact that it is a rectangular shawl because the rows don't keep getting longer, each row is a nice length and doesn't take too long to complete.

Moonfleet - Clue 4

While I wasn't driving around looking at flood damage, or taking a long nap, I managed to get some knitting done.  I finished up my third Camp Loopy project as well as finishing Clue 4 of Moonfleet.  This clue has a couple of tricky rows (especially row 9) and I did find myself making mistakes on all three repeats, but I also got really good at fixing my mistakes.  For Clue 5 I have one more repeat of this Diamond in the Well chart and then another transition chart.

Moonfleet - Clue 3

I spent most of yesterday working on this shawl and listening to the storm.  I did put Turner Classic Movies on once I realized that when working on lace I really need some TV playing because it makes me look up periodically.  If there is no TV playing I won't look up from the knitting and rest my eyes, resulting in eye strain.  For some reason just looking out the patio door is not enough, or maybe because the scene rarely changes I don't look up often enough.  Clue 3 consisted of three more repeats of the Mohune Y pattern, and then a transition pattern, which I finished up this morning.  Here is a close up.

Moonfleet - Clue 2

This week I have been focusing on lace, the Wandering scarf, the Lotus Garden scarf (more soon on that) and the Moonfleet shawl.  I love knitting lace.  I think it is my favorite kind of knitting.  I finished up Clue 2 this morning, waiting for Irene to hit.  She still hasn't touched us yet, but the sky is overcast and the air is warm and still and humid.  I can see a little bit of movement in the tops of our trees, and now the breeze is just starting to penetrate the shelter of our yard.  We should start to get some wind and rain soon.  We aren't too worried, we are on high ground, but not exposed, our house is about halfway down a ridge line, so we tend to be sheltered from the worst of the wind.  When Isabel hit our area we only lost one tree in our heavily wooded yard.

I have also been successfully fighting off a migraine with biofeedback.  Whenever the pain starts I imagine the blood flowing from my head into my hands.

Here is a close up of the lace motif.  The pattern calls it a Mohune Y pattern.  It is easy, but not too boring.