I also promised a photo of the first Shawl in a Ball once I had it blocked and fringed. I'm also very happy with this one, and love the colours!
You can read about this in my first post about this project. I have two more balls of this yarn, in different colour ways, but I decided that before I tackled this project again a garter bar was going to be a necessity, since there is a fair bit of rehanging to be done as you increase your way across the needle bed. My machine, a mid-gauge Studio SK860, did not come with a garter bar, but undeterred I found one from Kriskrafter in Illinois (no affiliation, just a very satisfied customer).
They are slightly different than "regular" garter bars in a way that I can't quite explain yet, except to say that they have an "open track" which seems to make manipulating the stitches on and off the needles somewhat easier than with standard issue garter bars. Here is a picture of my goodies from Kriskrafter.
I have two long bars, 75 needles each, so the two joined together will cover the entire needle bed (top of the picture). They are joined with the narrow rectangular bars in the bottom right of the picture and everything is included to do that (bottom right). I also bought one small 20-stitch garter bar (bottom left), and a set of three transfer tools (bottom centre). Everything arrived within about 10 days of my order, which is quite good I think for shipping from the U.S.
So my next task is to learn how to use these so that I can use them on the next Shawl in a Ball, and thankfully we have YouTube to the rescue. Kriskrafter has a basic demonstration video here if you're interested, and then Diana Sullivan has another, more in depth video here including a review of the garter bar. I'm sure there are others.
I'll report back with how I make out with the garter bars for Shawl in a Ball 2.0. Let me know if any of you have done this project, with or without garter bars!
Nancy
