All reason deserts you. You don’t know when you’ll wear it but you have to make it because it’s so pretty and sparkly and beady and beautiful! I tried on the Extended Eyre Shawl from Coastal Colours and could not stop prancing around and posing in it. It had to be mine.

The pattern was and extend version of the Eyre Shawl that looked like this…

The extended version has a square bottom edge and is much more versatile. And it has beads. Lots of beads. I do love shiny beads!

This is the back of mine….

As you can see, she’s huge!

Coastal Colours had created a huge 200g (800m) skeins of of Merino, Tussah Silk & Stellina lace weight yarn especially for this project (I actually used 153g). The pattern was included with the yarn. How could I resist this…

After excitedly casting on, I got seriously stuck ☹️

I am not a shawl knitter (mainly because I really don’t wear them!) and don’t have much experience with their typical construction. At the end of “Chart A” I could not understand how I was supposed to have 69st When Chart A covered 21st.

Lucky for me, Diane, one of the Guilty Knitters, is a very experienced shawl knitter. She took one look at the picture and the pattern and instantly blurted out,

“Well you do Chart A 3 times, divided by a centre stitch and k2 at the beginning and end of the row, don’t you?”

Genius.

Once the setup was done, I was happy with the lace pattern. Chart A was done then 7 repeats of Chart B (it took a while!) I had actually knit that pattern before, long ago in 2009, on this little top called Katia. Blogged here >>Katia – Another Wip Becomes a FO

Chart C was where 1500 beads came in. Yep, 1500 beads!! I found mine at Boundless Beads – 150grams (1.5 packs) Preciosa seed bead 5/0 in brushed silver. Brushed silver to pick up the Stellata sparkle.

I think they worked well…

I used a Fleegle beader to appy the beads to the given stitch – wonderful tool if you struggle with the small crochet hook of dental floss technique.

She was quite a slog to knit and I went through stages of:

• My tension is too tight
• My tension is too loose
• Am I sure I got the design right – it looks like a screwed up pair of knickers on the needles! (I was assure all lace shawls look like that, half way though!)
• I’m going to have loads of yarn left….
• I’m not going to have enough yarn…
• Where’s my Yarn Over?
• Have I dropped a stitch?
• Oh Sh*!!*mn!!, A cat has knocked the beads all over the floor (more than once)

Blocking was fun but needed a big space on the carpet and a door to keep excited cats away. And boy, did I need my blocking wires!

I have to say, I think the pattern was not clearly written for an inexperienced shawl knitter. It was mighty confusing to get started and honestly, I feel some key info was missing. In fact, after I had finished and loaded my pics onto Ravelry, I had a lot of conversations with “Siouxy” on Ravelry who had the same problems as me getting started. Hi Siouxy! Hope it’s going well!!

Because I made this last spring – I had to relearn the layout to help Siouxy. I got annoyed with myself for not being able to articulate clearly how to do Chart A and then the start of Chart B .

In the end, I had to draw it out for my own sanity!! Picture uploaded on Ravelry for anyone else struggling…Downloadable here ->>> Eyre shawl setup chart

Here’s the finished shawl in all her glory – very versatile and many, many ways to wear her….

I have no idea when I’m going to wear this shawl – maybe on holiday one evening or over a dress, going out for dinner or to the next knitting show to show off!!

Completed Knit Report
Name:	Extended Eyre Shawl
Pattern:	Extended Eyre Shawl by Karie Westermann (Extended by Coastal Colours)
Yarn:	Coastal Colours – Merino, Tussah Silk & Stellina (available as a kit with the pattern)
Pattern Problems:	Not very clear how the charts are laid out. Once cracked, easy enough is you can do lace.
Pattern Modifications:	None.
Washing and Wearing:	Love prancing around in it but not worn it yet.
Knit It Again???:	I’d have to be paid an awful lot – it was a slog!
Difficulty:	5/5 for interpreting the setup 4/5 after that.
Rating:	3/5
Other Postings Relating To This One:	None