Shetland Shawl

Originally posted at my yahoo blog on Dec. 23, 2006.

Having done the beautiful swallowtail shawl, shetland is such an easy task for me~ huh! The two patterns were both designed by Evelyn Clark, with same cast on method.

I've been falling into lace shawl since Autumn, and all my shawls are given as gifts to my friends and to my family.

I love fingering yarn, very much! But fingering yarn is not good for knitting a sweater, but is perfect for lace projects. I always pick up needles with two size bigger than suggested so the lace pattern would be more obvious, and off course, the knitting process would speed up a bit.

Pattern: Wrap Style by Pam Allen
Yarn: Sipan (50%alpaca 50%wool)
Needles: Clover #6 circular needles
Size: after blocking: 142cm/65cm

The amount of yarn used has confused me a lot. From the book, it said 500 meters yarn used for a 134 cm shawl, with 8 time repeats on body pattern. The yarn I bought from a local yarn store is a discount yarn, no length was indidcated on the label, but, from my experience on using the same yarn knitting Ene's Scarf, I know the yarn is pretty long enough. However, when I was done the body pattern, it took me less than a ball of yarn, off course the size of the shawl is very tiny! If I follow the pattern repeat, my size of shetland shawl will be like a hankerchief!



Therefore, I made 12 repeats for the body instead and it took me two and half balls to knit the whole thing.

The size is very satifying. My aunty said the pattern looks like bats flying around, and Judy said they are butterflies. I am happy that I chose the white color to knit, because it gives a purity touch to the shawl.

Pattern before blocking looks like...hedgehogs to me...

Ene's Scarf

The only reason that made me buying "Scarf Style" is the beautiful shell pattern of Misty Garden, and suprisingly, I found this elegant project in the book!

The elegant style it generates from the way it wears on the shoulder is really apptemting to me...though by the time I decided to knit this scarf, I was almost a new comer to lace shawl.

Pattern: Scarf Style by Pam Allen
Needles: Clover #6 circular needles and a lot of stitch markers!
Yarn: Sipan (2 1/2 balls) brick color
Size: more than 160 cm width. Pretty warm for winter time.

The cast on is a scary process! Can you imagine to knit patterns on 375 stitches without a mistake?! I had been trying three times to get the right patterns coming out and after the trouble cast on, everything went so well indeed!



This is how the pattern looks like while blocking. Actually this scarf is not a difficult one to knit, too, except the cast on part. And the scarf was already taken with me to Korea as a gift to the mother in law of a friend of mine. My friend told me her ML loves the scarf very much, and the color I chose is what she exactly likes. What a good coincident! :)

Swallowtail Shawl

Originally posted at my yahoo blog on Nov. 15, 2006.

love lace patterns! After my first project on the Snake Ladder Shawl, I am completely addicted to this delicate and romantic art of knitting and am crazy searching as many lace patterns as I could from the web.

Pattern: IK Fall 2006 (sadly that I did not buy this edition, and a big thank-you to YU for providing the pattern to me.)

Yarn: Meilenweit sock yarn. The feature comes along with the pattern perfectly and that there's still yarn left after my swallowtail is done.

Needles: Clover #4 (JP size) circular needles and a lot of stitch markers.

Size: before blocking:: 80cm/39cm

after blocking:116cm/58cm

The entire process of having this swallowtail shawl done was an enjoyable experience indeed! The special cast on technique and the annoying NUPP stuff, and off course the frustrating blocking process, all made me addicted to knitting more on this. And I am very much eager to have the seond, third and more swallowtail shawl!

I am now more used to read patterns in English and that this shawl is actually not a very difficult one, which is a good choice for knitters who wish to give a first try on lace patterns.

Umh...There should be a special note on the annoying p5tog. While doing so, I felt like time was "frozen" and that my p5tog would be a never ending action to knit! Thanks to Regina's sharing, I've learnt a smart hint from Regina on the knitting of p5tog. Instead of "purl 5 stitches together", we could simply slip 2 stitches to the right needle, and do a p3tog first, than slip back the 2 stitches, which would generate the same outcome, with an easier way. ~

Beautiful layers of swallow tail~