Progress on the witchy shawl

We all know that I am just going to jump right in to my next teeny-needle, follow-a-pattern sweater any day now, but I somehow picked this project out of the basket a few days ago and have been amusing myself with it a great deal.

It's quite easy to knit up a ball of yarn if you say, "Just one more row" a few times, and the rows are over 200 stitches long! I finished the main body of this crazy thing, and I know it is finished because I have no more of that yarn.

I started to put an edging along the top, knitting sideways onto the live stitches. I was using some 4-ply alpaca I got at a yarn swap, but it was too thin on its own, so I went and found some green 4-ply cashmere/wool that I got long ago on sale at Lettuce Knit. Now I am making a simple eyelet zigzag border... only about 220 more stitches to pick up. Argh!

Starting at the bottom we have the beads -- I had a wee bit of this thread-with-beads-on, and I just held it with the black for as long as I could.

sunny day, take a picture

Then we have the grey sock yarn thrown in, and a stitch pattern that went a bit wonky, but who cares?

At the end I used a pattern called Apple Leaves from my old stitch dictionary. It is not the same as other Apple Leaf patterns, so I cannot give you a link right now. Nonetheless, it is a fine pattern and as I was working it, I thought I should have made the whole dang shawl in this pattern!

I'm not sure it'll be so 3-D after I block it. I love this!

And here we have the beginning of the edge. My gawd, alpaca held together with cashmere and wool makes for the softest, squooshiest fabric ever! The main shawl is made with a wool/silk blend, and it is perfectly soft, but the edge is divine, I must say!

Soft, yet garish

I mean to make big, fancy edgings down the sides, and I would like to have strips dangling here and there, but am not sure they would dangle nicely without weighing things down and pulling the edges out of shape. I shall have to see how things go. I have a few bits and bobs of yarn left, some grey and some black Patons Classic Wool, and a ton of grey Cascade 220.