Sunrise Beaded Oaklet (Prayer Shawl)

I came across this gorgeous hand-dyed sock yarn on the 2012 Rose City Yarn Crawl (Merino Superwash/Tencel 50/50) by Alexandra's Crafts out of Silverton, OR. 

The perfect colors to knit up a shawl for a close friend of mine who is expecting a new little one.  I just made my first shawl, my beaded Holden, and I wanted to try another simple shawl, with a bit of lace.  I finally settled on the Oaklet Shawl by Megan Goodacre

It looked perfect... stockinette body, with a touch of lace that I could bead up at the end.  My swatch gauge was 23 st/4 in = 5.75 on size 5 needles, and I happily started out knitting the pattern. 
I knit the first few rows of this shawl, and then frogged it, because I decided to use a garter stitch tab at the start to give it a little more stability. First, I cast on 3 stitches and then knitted 6 rows (garter stitch). After the last row (without turning) I rotated the work 90 degrees, and then picked up 3 stitches along the side in each of the three garter row bumps, then three stitches along the bottom edge. This made 9 stitches total on my needle, and then I started with Row 1 of the pattern.

I also added some size 6/0 seed beads (orange, peach, pink mix) to give it a little sparkle, (per Studio June’s oaklet) on row 10 (stitches 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32 and 36) - which puts a bead on the purl row inbetween the yarn overs, and on row 18 (stitches 16, 24, 32) - which does an offset bead from the original beading). I used the crochet hook method (worked well) - This shawl took almost the entire skein of yarn (I was starting to worry!)

Here is my lovely dd, modeling for me once again:

Since this is a gift for a friend of mine who is expecting a new baby, I also made up a gift tag on photoshop to attach with care instructions/fiber information (as well as some extra yarn for snags, etc). I decided to use it as a prayer shawl, since the pattern wasn’t too complex - so I was able to pray for my friend and her upcoming little one while I worked on it… I love the idea of her wearing it, with all of those thoughts tucked around her shoulders!

Here is a page of labels I made up, in case you need one for one of your own projects.