I am a great admirer of Brooklyn Tweed and Jared Flood’s patterns.  My favorite one of his patterns that I knitted was Girasole.

His patterns are clearly written and easy for me to follow.  I’d actually love to knit Girasole again one of these days.

There is another Jared Flood pattern that I’ve dreamed about knitting for almost three years. It’s called Rock Island.

For a long time, I was kinda scared to start it because the pattern looked too difficult for me.  Instead of purling on the wrong side rows as is done in many lace patterns, there is lace written for both sides.  This really intimidated me.

After three years of looking at the pattern, I finally decided I was ready for it.

I never in a million years would have thought that this pattern would begin with an 8 row repeat that I would have to do 71 times.  I am knitting a strip which about 14 stitches wide.

The first row on each right side is a yarnover, and these are the stitches I will be picking up to start the main body of the shawl.

71 repeats.  It seems like I have been working on this for 100 years already, and I am only on repeat 21.  Actually they do go fairly quickly once I get rolling.

I didn’t do myself any favors with my needle choice.  If I had any sense, I would have chosen some nice Stiletto tip needles such as these.  Aren’t they beautiful? These must go on my wish list.

The yarn is laceweight and a little slippery, and I am using bamboo needles which don’t have a very sharp tip.  I could switch needles but I’d probably mess up my gauge.  I could start over, but I just don’t want to since it has taken me 100 years to get this far.

I have adjusted to these needles and it’s going pretty smoothly so I think I will just stick with them.

I have never knitted a pattern with this kind of construction before.  I wonder what will come next?  (You’d think I might read ahead, but I don’t want any spoilers!)