The Amazing Lace

I have officially joined my first knit-a-long ever. Whee! Theresa and Rachel have started a fun summer KAL, and since I am oh-so-carefully venturing into the world of lace at the moment, I figured signing up for some lace-related fun (and moral support) was a great idea!

I'm still slugging away on Branching Out, which is significantly longer than the last time I took a photo (I'm somewhere around 24 repeats) but otherwise looks pretty similar. I love it. The Kid Silk Haze is pretty much the softest yarn ever, and every time I work on the scarf, I end up petting it for at least a few minutes before beginning.

I have (perhaps foolishly) decided that I would really like to knit a lace shawl for my wedding. I have this vision of some beautiful, intricate, work of fibre-art which I can wear on my wedding day and then hopefully use someday as a christening shawl for our children. Of course, this work of art is slightly limited by my lace-knitting abilities (I think "intermediate" would be a stretch) and of course by time (clerkship continues to kick my butt), but I'm going to give it a shot anyways.

I did make a deal with myself: I can only start this project if I promise not to fret about finishing the shawl on time for the wedding. I figure that the last thing I need is an additional wedding-related stressor! That said, I have over a year (June 2, 2007 is the big day), so hopefully I can finish it by then.

So, the Amazing Lace plan is this: finish Branching Out (possibly even before the official start day, which I think is in early June....we don't have "Memorial Day" up here), and then start The Wedding Shawl with an eye towards at least making reasonable progress on it over the summer.

Next step: find a pattern. I've already bought 3 balls of Kid Silk Haze for it. I was thinking about Kiri, but have decided that it's not exactly what I want. I'm leaning towards the Leaf Lace Shawl now, but the Flower Basket Shawl is still on the list of possibilities.

I would love some suggestions!