At last - my Hazel Carter Alcazar finished, blocked, dried, and unpinned - placed on a plain white sheet so you can see it better:



My Alcazar (post block) is about 41 inches (104.14 cm) square measured from picot point to picot point across the center. All in all, I found this pattern to be easier than Hazel Carter's Spider Queen:



Working Alcazar without the diagonal seams in the corners helped. The charts are a bit easier to follow than SQ's. Alcazar's charts are presented in both half-width (mirror repeat) and full width formats. SQ's are done in with significant mirror repeats. SQ is significantly larger, and in general Alcazar's consitutent lace patterning is less complicated than SQ's as the patterns are more repetitious and there are fewer of them. Still, I didn't have any problems with Queen either, and rate both as excellent projects for those who are comfortable working from charts.

I touched on my biggest lesson learned yesterday - fiber choice. My piece is supple and soft, and a wonderful arterial red, but being rayon was not optimal for this particular pattern. Look at this corner:



See that cupping just inside the edging? The pattern was good, but the piece did not block out flat. That's my fault. A lace weight wool would have stretched to accommodate working around the corner. I should have anticipated the no-stretch factor and changed the rate of attachment along the entire border, perhaps adding as much as one or two entire points per side. That would have given enough ease for the piece to block out flat. A minor disappointment to be sure, and an object lesson in fiber choice. So it goes...


Postscript

And proof that I'm not the geekiest stitcher out there. While this proof is not quite as elegant as June Oshiro's DNA cable scarf, in certain circles it would be intensely appreciated.