Shimmer Feather and Fan Shawl

Shimmer Feather and Fan Shawl
Originally uploaded by Sheepish.

Tada! I, of course, didn't have the yarn used in the pattern (Do I ever?). Hadn't ever even heard of it, actually. And, though I'm sure it's pretty, I'm knitting this with Knit Picks "Shimmer" yarn instead (70% baby alpaca, 30% silk/colorway: stained glass). It is unbelievably soft and drapes beautifully. The colors are gorgeous. The picture doesn't really do them justice on my screen. They're a bit darker in real life, I guess. The actual pattern had a striping of two different greys, but I really like the way this colorway looks.

As a little side note: Do you see the charm on the stitch marker up on the right? It's actually not a stitch marker at all. It's a wine glass charm from a cute little set that my brother and sister-in-law made for us. They somehow always get forgotten when the wine gets served, but they've found their true calling now. They work great as stitch markers. I've marked each time the 18-stitch repeat starts and ends, because I don't want to get into a mess of trying to figure out where I screwed up. So far, it's working out well, except for the slight gap in stitches in that spot (Design detail, you say? Why, of course it is!). I've also been using some twisty-ties (or whatever you call them). Make a little loop out of one, and you've got a perfect stitch marker (Genius you say? Why, of course I am.... not).