Congratulations to lucky number 17, aka Class5knits on winning the Manos Fino! I’ve sent you a Ravelry message and the yarn will be on its way when I learn your address.

I’ve been jumping back and forth between Vasa and this Dotted Rays. Dotted Rays is pretty captivating, especially because I’m totally in love with the colors.

The mint color is Knerd String in Julep, and this next color is Koigu KPPPM, color P841. Both of these are vacation yarns–Knerd String from my recent trip to Denver, and the Koigu from a trip to Portland in 2009. I sort of wish the upcoming third color was also a vacation yarn, but alas, it’s some Cloudborn Fibers fingering weight that was a late night in-bed impulse buy… That doesn’t mean it won’t be special!

This pattern is easy to follow and probably could be movie theater knitting at this point (easy and mindless), especially since I hit the stripes. When working the short rows and alternating stripes it makes it extremely easy to see where the turn should be since the colors alternate each time you need to turn the row.

I was a little unsure when I should start the alternating colors. I wanted to start at the beginning of a new short row wedge so that the alternating Koigu would be able to go all the way across the length of the shawl. Some Ravelry folks mentioned starting when they had about a quarter of the first skein left. I aimed for that but then realized I would be left with much less than 25% of the Julep color when I was a few repeats into one of the short row wedges. So I ripped back and started the striping at the beginning of that wedge and had more like 38% of the Julep color left at the beginning of that wedge. I don’t mind additional striping as I really love the combo. However, that does mean I might not have the opportunity to do any solid Koigu wedge in the middle if I want to be able to stripe it with the upcoming color. This is all very technical and might only be useful to those wishing to make this shawl, but sometimes those technical details come in handy later.

One option would be to just to make the small shawl, and I’m not ruling that out for sure. I do love the idea of the large version that is practically a wearable blanket though. I suppose I will just see how I feel when I get to the part of the instructions that would indicate the end of the smaller version. Maybe I’ll even transfer the stitches to some waste yarn and try it on to know for sure.

Stay tuned in the next couple of weeks for some sock yarn giveaways!