Pretty in pink.....

is the knitting porn for today.   I have been knitting a new shawl with a few fellow ravelers in an impromptu KAL.  No rules, no time restrictions, we're all just knitting the same pattern and hanging out with each other.   My kind of KAL, no stress.

The is Tess.  I'm knitting it in Top Cat Lace.  BossCat and I don't knit with lace that often so we only had a few skeins in our personal stock, it never made it to the shop. 
I actually had the beads before the yarn was dyed and I think I matched it perfectly.

 It has an unusual beginning. You start from the bottom and do a crochet cast on with a chain 5 in between each stitch.  Then once you get past the lace section it is worked in short rows.  The start was a little fiddly, but once you get going it's smooth sailing.  This is the first time I've actually used stitch markers between each pattern repeat and it paid off. It made it so much easier to keep track of the pattern in case of mistakes.
 

I especially like the star stitch pattern in the short rows.

I'm totally into pink these days, so I'm sure this won't be going into the "gift box".