Another Icelandic Shawl

Last year, I knit the Icelandic Lace Shawl with lots and lots of changes. I had a lot of the yarn leftover so I knit another Icelandic shawl, Halfskak by Sigridur Halldorsdottir from Three-Cornered and Long Shawls. Again, I made lots and lots of changes. And, once again, I am happy with the results.

Yarn: Knit Picks lace weight: undyed (white), Jewels (blue), Lost Lake (green), and Sunset (red)

Needles: US 6

Finished size: 25 inches center back

Changes:

• Extra stitched added to each side and slipped.
• Fewer colors than original (I really am trying to knit from stash).
• Stockinette, not garter, on the white section.
• Extra repeats of the white section.
• Centered double decreases on the colored section.

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.

Gobsmacked!

When I first started lace knitting, I spent many hours visiting Nurhanne's Web site, Yarn Over. I was especially enchanted by her collection of doily patterns and quickly became hooked. I still visit regularly and still knit doilies from Yarn Over.

In December 2007, Nurhanne offered Pay It Forward on her former blog. She offered a hand-made item to the first three people who signed on and agreed to make the same offer on their blogs. This was too good to pass up.

So, this week I was gobsmacked when I received this beautiful wool shawl, made by Nurhanne, based on a Marianne Kinzel leaflet.

It is so beautiful. That it is also one of my favorite colors is a bonus.

Unfortunately, only one person signed on for my Pay It Forward, and I had no way to contact her. So, Robin, if you are still out there, please make contact so I can Pay It Forward to you.

Weeping Willow

I greatly enjoy the shawl patterns from Two Old Bags. This one is Weeping Willow. Details:

• Weeping Willow Shawl from Two Old Bags
• Yarn: Zephyr, 50 percent silk/50 percent merino, color Elderberry (wonderful yarn, wonderful!)
  
• Needles: 4mm (US6)
• Finished size: 35 inches center back

I added 8/0 Japanese seed beads to the center of the diamonds, along one of the chevron and at the tips of the edging. The beads are nearly the same color as the yarn because I wanted to add a bit of sparkle and weight but did not want the beads to overwhelm the pattern or the yarn.

Surrounded by Talent

For the past several years, I have had the great opportunity to attend Myrna Stahman's lace knitting retreat in Boise, Idaho. I always come home with my brain overflowing with ideas. One of the many highlights of the retreat is seeing and learning from other people's beautiful, stunning work.

Doilies, for example:

And a quilt made with doilies:

And shawls:

And scarves from luxurious Buffalo Gold yarn:

Being in the same room with all of the talented people is amazing.

Pretty in Pink

Debbie and I have been friends for — yikes! — 20+ years. She is a talented quilter crocheter and is quickly becoming a talented knitter. She inherits these skills, among others, from her mother, Jackie, a master of many crafts. Debbie, Jackie and I recently spent some time yarn shopping. Add shopping to their skill list.

Jackie kindly gave me a shawl kit with yarn and a matching pin. The yarn was five strands of pink, white and gold. I made a simple, garter stitch shawl to let the yarn shine. The increases are made with a yarn over at the start of each row. On US17 needles, it was a quick knit — instant gratification!

More Garden

I have had a few requests for a detail photo of the Shetland Garden shawl with its mirror decreases, so here it is (I hope the detail is visible; clicking on it will make it larger).

And, the shawl is 27 inches long down the center back, which is a good size for me.

A Stroll in the Garden

A Shetland Garden, that is. Specifically, the Shetland Garden shawl from Sivia Harding. The yarn Nature Spun fingering weight, one of my favorite, all-purpose yarns. The color is Hurricane Seas (our sailing friends Michael and Nancy don't understand why one would deliberately choose anything hurricane-related but I seem to be in a turquoise phase). Knit on US5 needles. The shawl took only three skeins, about 930 yards.

The main body of the shawl — the daisies, ferns and leaves — is written with all of the single decreases as right-leaning (k2tog). With this yarn, I chose mirror left- and right-leaning decreases (k2tog and ssk). For most of the double decreases, I used the designated left-leaning decrease (sl 1, k2tog, psso). However, on the leaves, which have stacked double decreases, I used centered double decreases (sl 2 tog, k1, psso).

The rose trellis section is written with left- and right-leaning decreases.

This was a fun pattern to knit and, like other Sivia Harding patterns, is clear and easy to follow.

Warming a Cold Shoulder

How do you warm a cold shoulder? With a shoulder shawl. This one is the Gracie pattern from Myrna Stahman's "Shawls and Scarves." I made it with about 600 yards of hand-dyed worsted-weight yarn on US10 needles. It came out 18 inches long down the back.

Shoulder shawls are the perfect solution when you need a little warmth on the shoulders but not too much.

Yes, the lawn is brown. Water is for the tomatoes. The grass will revive on its own.

Heartland Shawl

This is Evelyn Clark's Heartland Shawl, published in the winter 2007 issue of "Wild Fibers" magazine. It was the winner in a contest for Buffalo Gold fiber. Written instructions are in the magazine and you can e-mail Buffalo Gold for the charts.

I'm a big fan of Evelyn Clark, and I normally don't riff on her patterns. But I did on this one.

• I didn't have any Buffalo Gold but I had a pile of this unidentified wool (maybe washable wool) from a thrift store. I used US7 needles with it.

• I knit seven (maybe eight, I lost count) repeats of the Bison Tracks pattern; the original called for four. One of the beauties of recent Evelyn Clark shawls is the ability to add or reduce the number of repeats and still come out with a great shawl. The shawl is 45 inches long from the center neck to the center point.
  

• All of the double decreases specified are left-leaning, which I think detracted from the pattern. So I changed some of them to right-leaning decreases. In the River of Life border, I changed the left-leaning double decreases to centered double decreases. To accommodate all of this, I recharted the pattern.

• I made the second half a mirror image of the first half instead of a straight repeat of the first half. It made a difference in only a few places but felt more symmetrical to me.

• I added a small bead at the points of the border, borrowing the idea from other Evelyn Clark shawls. I think it helps the point stay pointed a little better. And I like beads. The bead color is black diamond luster, which I think complements the turquoise (turquoise is a hard color to match, so I went for complement instead of match).

And I think the turquoise shawl and red lace-leaf maple complement nicely.

Diamond Fantasy

Long time, no post. I haven't finished anything in a while, and when I did, I had trouble taking a picture worthy of its beauty. I finished Sivia Harding's Diamond Fantasy Shawl in some beautiful laceweight from Black Bunny Fibers, a Christmas gift from my friend Bridget, who is friends with Carol, the genius behind Black Bunny Fibers. The color is called Sue's Puppy (click on the photo to for a better look at the colors). Sue's Puppy is based on an earlier Carol color called Puppy. I'm not a dog person, but I am a Puppy person.

I wanted a big shawl. The pattern calls for 10 pattern repeats for a shawl. I did 14. I used US5 needles.

I had a difficult time photographing the gorgeousness of this yarn and pattern. The light wasn't right, I couldn't get a good background for the colors — just one thing after another. The photos still don't do justice to the final product, but there you have it.

Haiku

Alchemy Haiku — amazing, amazing stuff, mohair and silk. So light, so ethereal, at 325 yards in 25 grams . This is a small Faroese shoulder shawl in the color Spruce, with garter stitch borders and stockinette body, knit on US7 needles. I thought this would be mindless knitting — garter and stockinette, after all — but the yarn is so lightweight that attention must be paid.