Shetland Triangle all finished

Here she is all finished...
My first lace shawl. It turned out quite well. I was relieved that the bottom edge didn't change at all when I unpinned it from the blocking board. I used Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool in color #10 on size 8 needles. I started on 12/11 and finished on 12/21. I used straight needles until the 9th repeat of the body section because I'm not that fond of my circular needles. I added an extra (for 9 total) body repeat. I didn't insert any lifelines and ended up not really needing any. I skipped the last pattern row because I didn't want the points along the bottom edge.The pattern was pretty easy. I did make one mistake (forgot to pass a slipped stitch over) and realized it several rows later. Instead of unknitting all those rows of stitches, I just dropped the stitches over the mistake, unraveled down to it, fixed it, then raveled back up and it worked out fine.

The Silky Wool had a rougher feel than what I had thought it would. It is soft in a cushy soft sort of way, like flannel maybe, but not soft in a smooth way. The silk shows itself as rough little nubs along the strand. Also, there were quite a bit of twiggy plant pieces in the yarn (not a problem, just mentioning it). I really like how it looks finished more than I thought I would and it blocked very well but I wasn't crazy enough about it to want to knit with it again.
I'm thinking about my next lace shawl. I'd still like to make the Swallowtail Shawl, but I also like some of the other shawl patterns by Evelyn A. Clark. I also like this Sun Ray Shawl at Elann.com

one triangle off the needles

I finished knitting my Shetland Triangle shawl. Here it is hot off the needles before blocking:And here it is blocking:
I skipped the last (purl) row of the edging chart and the last pattern row because I didn't want the points along the edge. I bound off too tightly though and had a hard time stretching the lower edges out to a point. I think I should have gone up a needle size (or even two) to get a loose enough, stretchy enough lower edge. Because of this it's not as long as it could have been I think. Blocking, it is about 64 inches wide along the top edge and 26 inches from top edge to bottom point. I'm worried that when I take the blocking pins out the lower edge will pull back in or curl. I've got my fingers crossed that it will be ok.

I also made this candy cane holder cutie on my embroidery machine.
The pattern is from Embroidery Library. I used white felt for his body. I'm going to make several and put them on some Christmas gifts. Cute huh?

changed my plan

I'm to the neck part of my Wandering Aran Fields cape and I've decided I don't have another one of these in me (at least not now). The cable chart part seemed to go along pretty quickly. But when I got to the 9 inches of k2P2 for the neck I slowed down as it got a little tedious and dull. I'm about 6 inches along and have set it aside to do the Shetland Triangle shawl from the same Wrap Style book. The cape's collar is taking a lot longer than I thought. I'm hoping to get the Shetland Triangle done for a Christmas present instead of another cape. It's more realistic than trying to do another cape.
Here is my progress so far on the Shetland Triangle. It's not much to look at yet. I'm on my fourth repeat of the body chart and the rows are getting long. I'm about to switch to circular needles. I've been using my straight needles for as long as I can with it because I'm not crazy about my circulars. I usually spend more time wrestling with the stiff cable than knitting. I'm hoping Santa brings me a set of the new KnitPick optons needles for Christmas.

progress

Here is a photo update to show the progress I've made on the Wandering Aran Fields Capelet.

I've been busy. I finished the chart and am now working on the right button band. Then I have the left button band and collar to do. I think my guage may be a little off though. It's hard to tell. I'm a little worried it may end up bigger than I had calculated. The yarn is actually a bit darker than how it looks in this photo. The flash from the camera makes it look more red when really its burgandy. Now I am considering possibly maybe making another one of these for a Christmas present. I'd like to get this one finished to see how it is before I really commit to another one though. I've never knitted anything twice before except for mittens. Hmmm....