Wednesday 1 February 2012

Under the wire

The lilac shawl that I'm wearing to Weaving Friend's wedding (in 28 days!) is finished and blocked! Hurrah!

lilac shawl 001

The pattern is the Gingko Shawlette, size large. Yarn is some well-aged Louet Gems from my stash, just barely more than two balls of the stuff. Knit on a 4mm needle until the last row and the BO, where I used the recommended 5mm needle.

I'm quite pleased with the shawl. The stockinette part was rather dull, but the lace made up for it. Surprisingly, this project is my very first true knitted lace - that is, something with patterning on both the right and wrong sides. The lace was not intuitive for me, but it was worth it for the end results.

lilac shawl 002

I have to say, though, I was less than impressed with the yarn. It's a 2-ply, but while the singles were quite tightly spun, the plying was loose. The ends of the balls actually unplied themselves when I soaked the shawl for blocking. And of the three balls of yarn I used, all three of them had a snap somewhere. One had two. I ended up with silly numbers of ends to weave in as a result! Additionally, although all three balls were from the same dyelot, there's a noticeable colour difference where I've joined on a new ball. Not badly noticeable, but I know it's there.

Still, it's another project finished and some more leftovers into the bag for crocheted blanket squares. And more stash out of my stash. Woohoo!

1 comment:

Tamara Samuilova said...

Very nice - and it is the requisite lavender!!