Needs Some Changes

Some patterns just need to be changed, at least for my taste. The Icelandic Lace Shawl is one. The pattern appears in three places: Three-Cornered & Long Shawls by Sigrídur Halldorsdóttir, with a translation into English by Marilyn van Keppel; PieceWork magazine, July/August 1996; and online at Knitting Daily.

I used Knit Picks laceweight yarn: Bare Merino (white) and Shadow Lost Lake (green), Jewels (blue), and Vineyard (dark red). Knit on US6 (4mm) needles.

This is one of those patterns that I needed to read thoroughly and completely before starting, making margin notes along the way. Based on that reading, I made changes from the get-go:

• Fewer colors.
• Provisional cast-on instead of a “regular” cast-on to pick up stitches later.
• Stockinette instead of reverse stockinette, with 1 stitch garter edge.
• Centered double decrease in Chart B.
• Directional double decreases elsewhere instead of k3tog.
• Picked up for the border from the provisional cast on, knit 4 rows, purl 1 row to create ridge.
• Finished with 6 rows garter and Icelandic bind-off instead of crochet bind-off.

The shawl is about 25 inches long. If I make it again, I can see more changes I might make. Someday.