It didn't feel "Lazy"

Sometimes I wonder if anyone really reads this thing! But the beastie installed a counter and I know there are hits, but very very very few if any leave me a note...anywhoooo

I've got a couple of questions regarding the pattern "Lazy Lara" by Birgit Freyer over at Knitting Delight! First off if you are on Ravelry go join her group - there are always fun free patterns - and yes there is lots of German spoken there but there's a lot in English and if you're really in a mood then try plugging the German into Babelfish or some other translating package and you'll be surprised at how far you may get. There's another group over on Ravelry called "Excuse Me" this group is all about translating patterns not written in your native tongue. Also note gentle reader that most lace patterns are charted which helps too!

So the question of the day seems to be the cast off. This gave me fits but I'm assuming it's cause I haven't been crocheting for that long and I just didn't get it... so hope this helps!

grab a crochet hook the same mm size as your knitting needle. Without breaking the yarn single crochet (insert hook into the stitch on the knitting needle, yarn over hook and pull thru stitch removing it from the knitting needle, yarn over hook and pull thru both loops on the hook) in the first, second, and third stitch (you’ve now bound off the first three stitches),

The next four stitches on the needle should be a yarn over,make two out of three stitch, yarn over - single crochet into the yarn over, single crochet into the first stitch of the “two out of three stitch”, two more stitches have been bound off. Now chain three, and single crochet into the second stitch of the “two out of three stitch” and continue bind off. Continuing in this manner should give you the three large loops or points at the bottom of each lace medallion. Now I'm not saying this is the right way to end this - this is just the way I did it and it seems to work. And if this cast off seems too heavy then try using a slip stitch instead of a single crochet...

The second question has to do with blocking. It's hard to tell from this photo but I ran a piece of flexible blocking wire thru the top garter band (I added the garter band during cast on - it's not in the original pattern) and got it as large as possible and pinned. I then threaded a second piece of flexible blocking wire thru every second point of each three point lace motif and pulled it out to as large as I could get it. I then used a third piece of flexible blocking wire and threaded it thru the first and third points and pull to make them all even. The final step was I pulled the garter wire and the arc at the top evened itself out nicely and I left it to dry for the day. Of course that plaid sheet underneath helps line things up and keeps things even - think of it as a large "grid" - a gingham sheet would have worked better but I used what I had!

And finally I love this shawl and it's on the short list of things I would definitely knit again!!!