All's Well with Ishbel

It started with a skein of Happy Hands Toe Jamz yarn from Sock Summit 2009, in A River Runs Through colorway:
Add to that, the pattern for the Ishbel shawl, and several dozen stitch markers. Y'see, like many others who have tackled this pattern, I found that the lace charts said to work 3 together where there were only 2 to work together and vice versa. Throw in forgotten YOs every now and then, and it becomes clear why marking every single repeat of the pattern was absolutely essential. So was working the 3-togethers or 2-togethers according to whatever made sense at the moment.

With 450 yards in the skein, I had a lot more than I needed for the smaller size, but less than I needed for the larger size -- so I did the stockinette center for the smaller size and the number of lace chart repeats for the larger size, and had plenty of yarn at the end.

And of course, when you're done knitting lace, you get this little crumpled thing:


Which you soak for a good long time to relax the fibers, stretch like crazy on the blocking boards with wires and pins, and let dry. If you have a cat to hold it down and add a fine patina of cat hairs, so much the better.

Once off the blocking boards, voila! Ishbel, and all is well!

We shall see how this does in the State Fair.