You might remember that I was knitting a shawl that was a map of the heavens. The pattern is Celestarium, which shows the stars overhead in the northern hemisphere—each star’s position is marked by a bead and an eyelet.

I finished the shawl last week. At first I was disappointed in the size, because it seemed small, and I thought it was a bit stripey. Then I blocked it and the magic happened. Here it is:

The yarn is a Gradiance colourway from The Unique Sheep on their Luxe base yarn called Celestial Twilight. Luxe is a 50/50 blend of merino and silk, and quite a luscious yarn. Earthfaire offered this yarn with the beads as a kit, and I chose to have the lighter colour in the middle and the darkest at the outer edge.

I wasted a lot of energy worrying that I’d run out of the yarn for the border, even though that skein was larger to ensure there was plenty. I chose a narrower border than I’d originally planned to use, and (of course) had almost half the skein left over when I was done. Now that it’s blocked, though, I wouldn’t have wanted the border to be any wider.

What do you think?