KnitSchtick The Kate Shawl (Kate Middleton Shawl)

And this is done!

We were up north (Bay Area) all last week and without a house to clean or dinner to make, I was so happy to have some time to really give to my projects! 

I can not tell you how much I LURVE this pattern!!!

This came out wonderful and I'm soooooo happy with it!  (Can you tell?)

:)

As you can see on my model here, this shawl drapes so nicely!

:)

Just like everyone else under the sun, I went nuts for Kate Middleton's forest green Minnie Rose shawl and I knew I had to make one for me!

Fortunately my LYS (KnitSchtick) was having a workshop for this pattern and unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend.

I was still able to buy the yarn and get the pattern well after and I'm so glad I did, 'cause this worked up beautifully! 

I used nine (yes, NINE!  All nine!) skeins of Sublime Soya Cotton DK in # 150 which is a coral tangerine pink! (perfect for being along the lines of this year's color of the year - Tangerine Tango!)

This yarn is wonderfully soft and super drapey. It hangs so well.

It works fairly well too but,

a word on this yarn...

It is not tightly woven, which is what gives it its nice flowy hang and softness.

But it is so loosely woven that it unravels fairly easy, making it hard to keep it together sometimes when picking it up on the needle.

My other beef with it was that there were parts of some of the skeins that had torn strands!

So bits of my work ended up looking unintentionally messy, which is a big bummer.

Other than that, the yarn is lovey.  I don't know much about Sublime yarns but this particular yarn is not made anymore (and I only bought it last August!).  I'm not sure if they produce small collections and then move on, or if they just pulled this yarn.

This pattern however, was very well written and super easy to follow!

I am not crazy about having to pick up stitches 'cause I'm not always so good at seeing where the stitches are that need to be picked up, but the way this pattern is written made it sooooooo easy!

The edge of the shawl has a yarn over at the end of each row, leaving a clear space for where the stitches are to be picked up!

Nice!

That edge, by the way, only fit on a 60 inch circular needle.  60 INCH!

I'm really starting to build quite a collection of loooooong circular needles, thanks to this project!

:)

Adding the ruffle was easy and I like that the pattern offers two options for ruffle edge.

I chose this basket-looking pattern, just to try something new but I think the knit every row pattern would look just as pretty!

There were also two options for cast off and I wanted to try the option I'd never done ('cause I'm always up for learning something new) but I was so ready to be done with this one that I went with the old standard regular cast-off.

Looks ok, huh?

 These days, I'm as focused on a clean wrong side (inside) as I am on a clean right side (outside).

 All strands tucked in!

I wouldn't mind making another one of these for myself in an eggplanty deep purple.

 :)