Alpaca Shawl

Before going to France to teach on the French Treats Holiday I started to knit a triangular shawl using the same lace patterns as I used in the scarf project and the lace weight alpaca yarn from Fibre Harvest. I knitted quite a bit of the shawl while I was in France but didn't manage to finish it until I got back home.

I hadn't planned out the shawl beyond the basic idea of starting at the centre and increasing out in 2 triangles using the diamond pattern to start with and then changing to the pillars pattern. I wanted another variation of the pattern to finish the shawl. The first version I tried didn't look right as the lace pattern became to 'heavy' i.e. too much stocking stitch, so i undid that part and tried again finishing with the pillar patterns being drawn into points. (see the detail further down this post).

I persuaded my daughter to model the shawl for me!! which she does very well.

These are some photos of the shawl as it was blocked out to dry. I bought some large rubberised floor mats which slot together and if you use them on the 'wrong' side you can pin into the surface quite well. 4 mats joined together gave me a large enough surface to pin out the shawl. It does make a big difference to the finished piece to wash it and block it out to shape as it opens out the lace as well as giving the decorative edge detail.

Detail of the diamond lace pattern,

Detail of the pillar and edge lace pattern.

Having knitted the shawl I now need to write the pattern properly. It will be interesting to write as it is mostly charts and I haven't written this type of pattern before. Sometimes it is much easier to just knit something and then write the pattern although you do need to keep good notes!