I'm delighted to report that edging for my shawl is going much faster that I'd anticipated. I'm already more than halfway done with the second of four sides! I think it sped up as I became more comfortable with the fiddly-ness of of this part, and got more practice with the pattern. Usually a 14-row lace pattern wouldn't take me long to memorize, but this one isn't very intuitive. However, now that I've done it about 45 times, I've got it down.
Also, I found an easier way to deal with the rows where I'm attaching the edging to the shawl: at the start of each repeat, I place 7 stitches from the shawl on the end of the double-pointed needle that I'm using to work the edging. That way, when I get to the end of each right-side row and have to knit together a stitch of the edging with a stitch of the shawl, I've got them both on the same needle, rather than having to fiddle with knitting a stitch from both needles. It's helping a lot, and I'm happy I thought of it!
With the end of this project in sight, I'm thinking about what will be my next major undertaking. It's been a long time since I had a new fair isle project (since Hank8 took me over a year to complete), so I'm thinking about finally starting the Swan Sweater from Norsk Strikkedesign. I've had the kit for a very long time now, and it beckons frequently. However, I'm feeling guilty about starting another project for myself when I have several projects for my husband and other family members in line as well. But... I'll probably get over this guilt and make myself another sweater!
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