My Pebble Beach Shawlette

Back on 12th July I went to Unwind at Brighton, which I posted about here.  The Pebble Beach Shawlette, by Helen of Curious Handmade, was the winning pattern of the Unwind Design Competition.  A mass cast on in the Pavilion Gardens was planned, so I bought this gorgeous skein of Luminosity from the Skein Queen to knit my shawlette in. 

 This yarn is 100% mulberry silk and was a joy to knit with.  It is soft to touch and doesn't split.  It was quite forgiving too, when I had to undo a few rows towards the end of the shawlette!

 The mass cast on, with Helen on the left of the photo.  Meeting fellow knitters and knitting with them was the highlight of my day at Brighton.

 Later I just had to do some knitting on Brighton Beach! ;)

 Back home and I often took my knitting out into the garden.

 This was the first time I had knitted one of Helen's patterns.  They are so easy to follow as she writes them out clearly and at the end of each row is the % of how much you have knitted!

 That % count is very handy when updating your Ravelry project page.  Also on Ravelry Helen ran a KAL of the Pebble Beach Shawlette.  Many beautiful shawlettes have been knitted as part of the KAL and some people have enlarged the design and added beads.  Helen has run a competition for the best Pebble Beach Shawlette (I don't envy her as they are all so gorgeous) and a media maven competition for #pebblebeachkal.

 Just as I started to cast off I noticed a mistake 10 rows back!  That's what happens when I knit late at night!

 Mistake corrected and casting off again.  I was determined to finish this KAL on time, unlike last year's shawl that I haven't touched since!!  That's my next project!

 Yay, I finished on time!

My Husband photo-bombing ... as usual I might add! :)

 Fay was going away for a few days so I blocked my shawlette on her bedroom floor, using my new blocking wires that I had bought at Unravel in February.

As this is knitted in a silk yarn I spray blocked rather than wet blocked.

 Then I covered it with another towel and crossed my fingers!

 A couple of days later we had planned a beach trip and it seemed only right to take my shawl to the beach to be photographed! :)

 My first ever shawl.

Thank you Helen for a lovely pattern and for arranging the KAL.  It has been such fun and I'm looking forward to the next one.