I’ve finally been making some progress on my Swallowtail Shawl. I decided that my still-sore thumb/wrist probably wouldn’t appreciate doing the gazillion P5together nupps in the Lily of the Valley border, so I decided to bead it instead. Finding beads, however, as been something of a challenge! We have few places that sell beads in town, and they didn’t have anything suitable. So I ordered some (and .6mm crochet hook) from Morris and Sons, but the beads were too small. I went to Canberra for a few days after Easter, and found some seed beads there of the right pearl colour – but still the size smaller than I wanted. However, I’m using them, anyway, as most of the mail-order places seem to be out of the size I want in pearl, and I’m impatient to get this shawl finished!!

So here’s a detail of the beads:

Pattern: Swallowtail Shawl Yarn: The Knittery Silk Merino Lace

Other than progress on the Swallowtail, there’s not been much knitting finished. I’m part-way through the second crimson lace mitten for my niece, and have started the sleeves on my shawl-collar jacket, so I can see light at the end of the tunnel on both of those – but for the moment, I’m concentrating on the Swallowtail.

(And in non-knitting content, just a reminder to my textile friends who are also readers that there’s only two days to get entries in to win a prize pack including my romantic suspense novel, As Darkness Falls. Details are here. )