On my needles now: Comissioned Bella Shawl

Winding up the last skein of Louisa Harding Grace Hand dyed yarn for K's Bella Shawl.

 I was commissioned by a church friend to knit a Bella Shawl designed by Annie Baker of JumperCables Knitting about a month ago and though this friend has very kindly given me no pressure to finish the project within a certain amount of time I now pledge that I will not work on anything else until I have finished this knit.

The pattern was one that I had caught my eye a while back. I liked the simplicity of the eyelet lace but the asymmetrical design made it a bit more interesting. It has been a really easy to memorise pattern so this has generally been the project that has come along with me to the children's lessons. I can work on it while also dividing my attention to keep an eye on the little ones when necessary. It is also easy to read where I left off in the pattern because the eyelet lace on the left panel has been grouped in blocks of 7. I would just have to count how many eyelets I had done to work out where I was up to in the pattern.

The yarn that I have been knitting with is from Louisa Harding and it's the hand painted DK/ 8ply weight merino/ silk blend. The colourway is a beautiful variegated blend of pinks and reds. It is a single ply yarn with a merino lovely softness and silky sheen. A simply stunning yarn.

Lovely pinks and reds variegated throughout the shawl.

I'm onto the last skein of yarn so I'm on the home stretch. My aim is to use up as much of the purchased yarn as possible. Since the yarn has been paid for by my friend I want to make sure she gets the full yardage in her shawl. I now need to work out exactly how much more knitting of the left eyelet panel I should do before moving on to the large right hand panel to finish the shawl. My plan is to knit a sample of the right hand panel with the last skein of yarn and then weigh the piece. This way I will work out how many grams of yarn I need to reserve for that panel of knitting. I will then pick up where I left off on the main shawl and knit until I have the required grams of yarn needed to knit the large eyelet panel. It might seem like a long round about approach but I'm not sure of any other way to do it. If you have a better more efficient way of doing it please do share your tips with me.

I've cast on 155sts on the right to knit my test panel.

I hope to have this project off the needles by the week's end and blocking over the weekend. It'll be ready just in time for winter and I hope my dear friend will enjoy wrapping herself up in the Bella shawl. I'll make sure to write up any notable project notes on my Ravelry page as well as cover the shawl in a 'Finished object file' when I'm done knitting it.