in progress main bodyI’m in progress on the as-of-yet-still-unnamed Mrs Crosby Reticule Shawl. My goal date for the sample to be finished is the June summer TNNA show.

I frogged my initial prototype.

I just wasn’t liking it. In fact I was rather hating it.

You may recall I posted about this shawl about a month ago.  It’s a companion piece to Isn’t It Romantic?, but worked in laceweight yarn (Mrs Crosby Reticule, 100% merino) and a totally different shape. It (still) starts with a few cast on stitches, and grows into a wedge/curled shape shawl.

The main body of the shawl HAD a simple stockinette and lace panel design. I even sort of blocked it out, keeping it on the circular needle, to see how it would look. It was, to me, for this project, boring and a little messy looking.  I didn’t like the edges. I didn’t like the lace rib.

One of the things that I’ve found as a designer is that I can go through several love/hate phases on a project. Even if there’s a time I’m not really sure of a project, often if I trust myself and power on, all will turn out fine.  I didn’t get that feeling of uncertainty on this one, though. I was simply hating it.

That’s part of being a designer, too – knowing when something isn’t working, and trusting yourself on that, too.

And it is always better to frog sooner than later.

I spent a day playing with different stitch patterns (I use Stitch Maps in lieu of swatching and as an initial check on stitch counts) and redoing the charts. I ended up choosing a very pretty leaf lace panel, from one of the Barbara Walker stitch dictionaries, for the main body of the shawl.

It now makes me happy.