A year or so ago I cast on a new Aeolian Shawl, not only because it’s a gorgeous pattern, but also because the last one I knit (about eleven! years ago) was before I learned I was unintentionally twisting all my knit stitches and I thought it was long past time I knit one properly. This time around I’m using some older Queensland Collection Llama Lace Melange in Red Plum from the stash which has been a complete joy to use. It was one of the projects I brought with me while I was in Maine during the summer, and I made it through most of the Yucca chart repeats for the full-sized shawl. I overshot my count a bit, (because once you get into a yucca rhythm it’s very difficult to stop) and ended up with fourteen repeats instead of twelve, but the pattern itself is vey adaptable.
Once you finally move on from yucca repeats you start the transitional chart for the agave chart, and that’s where you can start adding beads. Come to think of it, you could probably add them at any point, but as I like the heft, shine, and drape of beading lace I don’t love the process itself so I just stick with the pattern. At first I pre-strung the beads onto the yarn to save myself from the fiddily-ness and stop-start nature of using a crochet hook but wasn’t a fan of how the beads were looking. Since the yarn I’m using is 100% llama, it’s very slick and the beads would slide around on the yarn and migrate around on the shawl. Wasn’t a big deal when I last used that beading method on my Shipwreck shawl, but those were intended to be random.
And quite impossible to see on this old photo, but I actually ended up donating the shawl once I realized I don’t much wear circular shawls. However, since the beads on the Aeolian are meant to form a pattern, the crochet hook was the way to go. I was about a dozen rows into the transitional chart so instead of frogging what I’d done, I just started using the crochet hook method, but then it began to annoy me that the new rows of beading were nice and neat, but the previous ones were all over the place so I took a deep breath, pulled out my needles and frogged back to the beginning of the chart Yes, I have heard of a lifeline for lace knitting but that would involve forethought and planning ahead and having more than a few braincells to rub together and I just don’t roll that way.
Now plowing my way through the chart, and making decent progress. We had a snow day today so I’ve been able to really sit down with the shawl and get some knitting done. I’ll probably just do a single repeat of the agave chart because the edging charts use up a tremendous amount of yarn, and I’m not confident on getting more a of the same dye lot from a yarn I bought in 2016 but I should still end up with a decent sized shawl. Okay, maybe occasionally I do think ahead.