Dancing about the needles tips

I have a very significant and fantastic project dancing about near the very tips of my needles

I've spent a lot of time debating over fibre content, and yarn colour with the recipient.

One of my closest friends for one of the longest times is marrying her beau, so a handknit wedding shawl is definitely in order :)

Bink and I chose Zephyr Jaggerspun, a light and magically shimmery blend of merino and tussah silk (no critters harmed in the making!) and I'll be knitting up the Liesel lace pattern in a stole size.

I ordered the yarn from afar, fine-tuned my order with the shipping staff and collected it with MUCh excitement when the box arrived.

When it arrived the yarn was in cone form, so needed to be wound off into yarn cakes, to enable knitting with two strands held together

so I spent a fun, yet slightly nerve-racking, evening winding from the cone (held on a stick by my sweetie) off onto the ballwinder - we had a couple fo snags, leaving on cake with a midway break, but apart from that all was smooth sailing)

Since then I've knit up a wee swatch - one complete pattern repeat - to see what sort of needles will work best and how many repeats will give the desired size..

And now *deep breath* I think I'm just about ready to begin - and not a moment too soon!

The wedding date is early April, so I won't be dilly-dallying any longer!