New Start for the new year

It's about time for lace again, isn't it?

This is the Bee Fields Shawl, in the Buckwheat Honey colorway - laceweight merino from Wooly Wonka fibers. This yarn is SO lush, it has a great "crunchy" hand and the color!!!! Normally, I'm with Fleegle - not liking varigated colors in lace. The color and the pattern compete. But THIS yarn is very subtle, just a variation on the theme.

It's ALMOST fingering weight, so it's not fiddly at all. Good thing, too, because the pattern is VERY fiddly. This is the first time that I've tackled true knitted lace (pattern on every row). I hadn't realized how much I've come to depend on that 'purl back' row to double check my count, run my life line, and so forth.