2017 Boo Challenge: Rainshine

With a new niece or nephew predicted to arrive around the end of March I should really be focusing all of my efforts on knitting teeny tiny baby things, but after completing a good percentage of their blanket I decided I could afford to take a quick shawl break.  Now that it's finished I promise that I will be hitting the baby knitting hard until the little lad/lass makes an appearance.

Rainshine was the first Boo Knits pattern that I completed and it seemed to me that it was time to revisit it.  The first one was not quite all it was cracked up to be, it was just a little too small, I wasn't mad about the colour and the yarn didn't really hold the shape as well as it needed to with those dramatic points.

This time I was a bit more savvy with my yarn choice, Fyberspates scrumptious lace has 50% silk and will hold on to those lovely points much better and the magenta colour is fabulous.  It is quite a fine yarn so I completed 6 repeats of the main pattern to make sure I ended up with a good sized shawl.

After casting off I was a little concerned that it was still on the small side but I really shouldn't have worried because the lace opened right out as soon as the shawl hit the water and it's turned out to be the perfect size.  Using such a fine yarn has meant that my points are not quite as long and dangly as last time but they are still pretty pointy points nonetheless.

It took me a really long time to choose beads for this project, I couldn't quite find any that seemed to match nicely and I wasn't sure I wanted anything too contrasty.  In the end I went for magenta lined grey Tohos which don't quite match but look pleasingly like tiny berries nestled in my knitting.  I still have well over half of the yarn left however so I'll probably try something a bit more bold when I use that up.  I'm really pleased with how it's all come together into a very beautiful shawl.

The only problem I have now is deciding whether to keep it for myself or whether to put it aside for a Christmas gift like I'd intended when I cast on!