Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Forest Canopy Shawl

May I present my first lace knitting project, the Forest Canopy Shawl. Thanks you to Buzz for the excellent modelling job (she thinks she's a celebrity and tries to get in all the photos)



A big shout-out to SadieandLance, Stephanie, Brenda and Meg (how cool is that calculator!) this first-born shawl is dedicated to you. I was trying to come up with an appropriate amalgamation of your names to call the shawl but couldn't make it work (BrestMes? No, I don't think so.)

Pattern: Forest Canopy Shawl from I'm knitting as fast as I can.

Yarn: 2 skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Yarn in Bittersweet from here. I hope I haven't broken some lace knitters code by using sock yarn...it's so soft and lovely.

Needles: Addi circulars 80cm 4.5mm. I found these mostly fine with this pattern, a couple of times I could have used something sharper, but that was generally on rows that I had attempted to unknit. And it's best to avoid sharp object when I unknit.

Final Measurements: 66 inch wingspan, 28 inch length (the finished dimensions on the pattern were 52 x 23, so I could possibly have blocked it a little longer...)

Modifications: I wasn't game enough to deviate from the pattern! The only thing I did was slip the first stitch of each row because otherwise my edges get a bit sloppy. I also did an extra 4 repeats on top of the number in the pattern because I still had more yarn and I wanted it to be a little bigger. But the pattern said it was OK to do this so I don't count that as breaking the rules!

Blocking: I did it! My first blocking experience, yay for me! I tried to follow these instructions, which are pretty clear, but I still managed to get confused. I did the string thing along the top but when I pinned it all out it just wasn't sitting flat and stretched along the string. It wasn't 'grabbing' it properly or something? So I just put a few pins along the string to get it to sit and tried to do it so I didn't get a scollopy top edge.

I wish: I hadn't had to unknit and/or rip about half of the thing by the time I finished it. I suspect being able to use stitch markers would have helped me out here, but there wasn't anything about them in the pattern and I couldn't figure out how to work them in. Oh well.

Overall: Two thumbs up. I enjoyed knitting this. It took me about 2 weeks or so, which isn't too bad (I think).


12 comments:

SadieandLance said...

W-O-W. Double wow. I like BrestMes, has a great ring to it!

Anonymous said...

Looks great, Kristie!

Anonymous said...

It looks fabulous, and the yarn is perfect! Buzz looks very proud of your knitting.
Thanks for the link too!

Stephanie said...

Super congratulations :D
it looks lovely (and so does your kitty!)

Well done, and welcome to the world of Lace Addiction ;)

btw, if you ever need to "email" me, there is a contact link in my sidebar :D

KnittyLynn said...

Gorgeous!
Go you, blocking and knitting lace!

Anonymous said...

Wow, looks great! Wonderful job on your first lace.

Anonymous said...

It looks great, Kristie!! Congrats! And the colour is fantastic! Blocking lace really is like magic, isn't it? :)

Bells said...

oh my! that's stunning! No wonder you are so proud. I'm really impressed with that! I wanna make a shawl...I wanna do lace knitting....so much to do, so little time...

Emma said...

Ooh, it's so gorgeous! Love.

Sourire11 said...

It's beautiful!!!! Beautiful yarn, beautiful pattern, beautiful cat... love it. Congrats on your first lace shawl!

Anonymous said...

Hi, Love the shawl. I am also going to make mine out of lorna's laces sock yarn. I have a question. Was two skeins enough? Did you have a lot left over? It looks wonderful. Congratulations!

Rachael Elswyk said...

I've been looking for a beginner lace pattern and thanks to you I think I've just found it! Thanks! Hope you're having a great holiday!