Aeolian Shawlette start up

So I have started my Aeolian Shawlette, but haven't had a chance to post because I knew this first post would take a while to organize. Most of the information I will share I found by spending a lot of time reading through the Ravelry group: Aeolian KAL. I recommend checking it out if you are knitting along.

Here is the summary of what I think are the important points for knitting the shawlette with 1 skein of SeaSilk:

1. To make sure you do not run out of yarn, only knit 4 repeats of the Yucca chart. It may seem like you have a lot of yarn left at that point, but you will use an estimated 65% of the yarn for the edging.

2. Elizabeth Freeman has also designed an Alternate Narrow Edging for the Aeolian. It is 12 rows shorter than the original Aeolian. I will probably add a lifeline before I start the original edging so I can rip back if I run out of yarn. Or I might decide to just use the narrow edging. I'll let you know when I get there!

3. If you do not want to do the nupps, use a bead instead. If you do want to do the nupps, here is a great YouTube video on an easy way to do them: Easy Peasy Nupp. I am leaning toward using beads only because I love beads in lace shawls--nothing against the nupps.

So now on to where I am with my shawl. First of all, it took 3 attempts for me to get the cast on/set up correct. As usual it was just a matter of doing exactly what the pattern says, even if it looks weird at first. Once I got the set up going, everything was going along just fine until I realized you could not see my beads because they matched the yarn a little too well:

They really are there, here's a close up:

So I stopped knitting and ran to the bead store to get some different seed beads. I didn't bother starting from scratch because you won't be able to notice the green beads anyway (and I didn't want to attempt that start-up again)! This is how it looked after I completed the Set-Up chart:

I was a little confused when I started the Yucca Chart so I will explain it here in hopes of sparing someone else.

1st 8 rows of Yucca chart: 2 border sts (Sl1, K1) + sts before red line + 2x area in red + sts after red line + center st (Ktbl) + sts before red line + 2x area in red + sts after red line + 2 border sts (K2).

For each Yucca chart repeat, there will be an additional repeat of the area in red (so 2nd time through Yucca chart, repeat 3x before center stitch, 3rd Yucca chart, repeat 4x before center stitch, etc). Make sense? It really does once you are there.

I am working on my last (4th) repeat of the Yucca chart right now. I will post some pictures once I finish this part up and move on to the Transition chart.