Braided Shawl/Flechtmustertuch - done!

I'm free! I can cast on whatever I want now! I've got only Theresa's lace scarf on my needles, and that's my in between and television knitting. So this will take a while. But I'm itching to knit with thicker yarn now, and I want to make hats and mittens. We'll see what will catch my fancy. ;o) This is the original, or the one I liked so much, that I had my father sent me the magazine over. There is a German KAL going on for this shawl. You can see other finished shawls here. Angelika was much faster than I was, so I could pick her brain about it, whenever I needed help and encouragement, she answered patiently I might add, all my questions. Thanks!

pattern: Lotte Wackerhagen (Designer), Anna magazine September 2007, also Karen Noe's selling the pattern on her website, I wanted to link it , but it never loads without an error.

yarn: Koigu KPPPM 100% merino, 50g/175yds/160m. I used 7 skeins in all (including the blue one) and had 18 inches! left over. The pattern called for 920m, but I needed 1120.14m. Hmmh.

needles: 3.75mm addi lace circular

size after blocking: 47" x 76" ( ~117cm x 190cm)

start-finish: Sept. 14-24, 2007

I did everything the pattern called for, no modifications, except substituting the yarn, and the needle size.

18" left over yarn

I would have been happy to finish this shawl with one colorway, but it was not nearly enough. I'm lucky to have found the single blue skein in my stash. I like how it looks now. The braided part is much tighter than in the original photograph of the shawl, must be the yarn and the needle size. The shawl has lovely drape though, and it's huge. You can really snuggle into it - that's nice. Knitting the fringes was a challenge in patience, and braiding them, took a moment of stepping away from the project, and bugging Angelika some more. After that, it clicked and it was done quickly. But imagine 200 pigs tails or cork screws taming into straightness to be braided, and pierced, so I could later pick up the stitches again. I think I invented some new curse words while doing that.

I'm glad I'm done with it. I don't think I've ever knit so long on a shawl before, and it was getting tiresome, especially the pressure of having enough yarn or not. 18 inches left over! Imagine! I'm not quite sure yet if I'll ever knit this shawl again. One should never say never, right?

Love my camera, it's fun to play with.