Three Months of Work and Here it Is....

Tuscan 
Sunflower
 I have been beating my head against the wall on this one for about three months. The biggest challenge was getting the center motif to resemble spiraling sunflower seeds. The easiest way to have done this would have been to start with a star pattern in the middle. I didn't want that though. I wanted spirals from the beginning.


Months down the road and many, many iterations later, I finally came up with what I wanted. I don't know how many times I started this guy and then ripped it out. I'm pretty sick of it now.
I started working it out using white sport weight yarn. Then when I was happy the center, I switched to fingering weight. Then, when I was satisfied how that knitted up, I went and got the good stuff.
The center is definitely not for the novice knitter. There are several double yarn overs as well as interesting things that happen on the plain rounds.
The petals didn't cause me much trouble. When I got to the final version, I didn't even have to rip them out once.

Now that it is finished, I should really get busy on that sweater that I promised my partner. However, I already have an idea for another circular shawl.

I wrote up the pattern complete with charts and everything.  My partner says that I should sell it.  I'm still thinking about that one.  It's seems like such a big step to go from knitting to putting your stuff out there for others.
I'm sure that I'm just being silly.  I guess the only way to get over it is to just jump in and do it.  Hmmm....I'll think about it for another day or two.