Saturday, February 26, 2011

First Shawl

With part of my Christmas gifts of Lambikin's Hideaway gift cards I recently took a class to make a lace shawl.

The class was taught by Mindy and used her first pattern, the Holden Shawlette (available for free on Ravelry). The class was very popular and the store is offering another session in March, as well as another class featuring a beaded shawl (details at the Lambikin's site linked above).

I used a skein of Juliana Fingering yarn (70% alpaca, 20% silk, 10% cashmere), which was dyed by Mindy -- her yarns are at Ewe3 over on Etsy. I think the popularity of the shawl classes and of Lambikin's Saturday Sock Club has greatly depleted her available stock, but I know more will be on the way. I used the Violet Vale colorway, which is three different shades of one color of purple. I love everything about this yarn, and one skein was more than enough -- I probably could have done another repeat of the lace pattern.

This pattern is a great introduction to lace knitting and to triangle top-down shawls. The stockinette portion isn't so big that you get discouraged or bored, and the lace is simple but beautiful. There are really only two rows per repeat where you really need to concentrate closely. I could handle baby-interruptions on all other rows. The picot bind-off takes a really long time, but is totally worth it.
Here's a shot of the shawl pre-blocking:

During its soak in the tub:

And while it was pinned out:

It's another new FO that I seem to wear every time I leave the house. I think I may have caught the Shawl Bug.

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