After a couple of false starts and a lot of muttering under my breath (and maybe some muttering not-so-under my breath) I finally got this sucker started tonight:

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So far I love the yarn, and I think the beads are absolutely perfect. I swatched with two different beads to see which I liked better, and the other was just too silvery and ‘blingy’. Not really the look I’m going for with this shawl, but I’ll still save them for another project.