Print O' The Bead

I always tell people to swatch. It's a bit of a mantra, really... And funnily enough I sometimes even take my own advice :) This time, though, This Time... I have been taking that nugget of knitterly wisdom under serious (and possibly even slightly obsessive) consideration. I spent alot of January and February swatching for my wedding shawl. The pattern that I have chosen, following a previous six months(ish) of investigation and research, is Eunny Jang's Print O'The Wave Stole. It's a beautiful pattern and, if you are a lace fan(atic), you would say it is not the most intricate or difficult of undertakings. I've done my share of lace knitting, and I've settled in nicely to the pattern, so why (I hear you ask) the two months of intense preparation and planning? It's the beads. It's my fascination with and lust for Swarovski crystals. It's that I needed to place them just so... It's that I wanted them peppered throughout the kidsilk, without weighing it down. It's the search through Dublin bead shops for small ones. It's the ordering of 2mm crystal AB rondelles from the USA. It's the fighting to get these tiny beauties onto the cobweb-light kidsilk. It's the dropping, losing and cursing of their miniscule sparkly forms. It's the persevering and the 60 full minutes to do one 12 row repeat... It's the knowing that it's all going to be worth it in the end. Five months and counting folks... Wish me luck :)