During June / July I was fortunate to attend a series of lace knitting workshops with Elizabeth Williamson, close by in Suffolk. During this time we saw a range of Elizabeth’s shawls, by range I mean in shape, colour, fibre, stitch pattern and challenge. You name it Elizabeth had an example. I fell in love with Elizabeth’s Fladda instantly, I loved the crescent shape and the openness of the design and determined to knit it.
You will see that I also call it Alchemilla and that will be the name I use for it. Fladda is the name of the pattern, given by Elizabeth, it is a Shetland word. I decided that I would knit the pattern in my own naturally dyed yarn. I have had a couple of Alchemilla plants in pots on my patio and they have flowered profusely this year and given me real joy.
Alchemilla plant
I also decided that this shawl would be great alongside my Hand Made Harris Tweed Skirt. The Alchemilla dyes the yarn in a yellow hue and I decide I would do a sample dye using both madder and iron, after dyeing it yellow.
I lived with these skeins on the skirt for some days before deciding to go with the madder modified one. I am delighted with my choice and I am only sorry that there was not enough dye to do the green version as well.
The yarn I used was Jamieson and Smith 2 ply Supreme. It dyed beautifully and was a joy to knit. It is a thicker yarn than the 1ply supreme and 1 ply cobweb that I normally use but my eyes have been opened to the superb lace shawl that can be made with slightly thicker yarn and bigger needles and I will certainly be doing such a design again. (After sampling I choose to use 3.5mm needles.)
A corner of the crescent
The long edge
Some facts:
Finished mass : 49g
Knitting Time : 38 hours - added to this should be the checking stage, finishing ends etc and dressing, which is probably another 4 hours.
shawl being dressed
I knitted the shawl using 30 cm dpns, as I use a knitting belt. I have 40 cm needles but never needed to swap even when the number of stitches got large.
Finished width - 133cm and depth - 44cm centre back
Me, wearing the shawl
It has been a very wet day and the light was poor!
You can find Elizabeth’s patterns on Ravelry, under Elizabeth Williamson. Elizabeth was born and brought up in Shetland surrounded by Shetland Knitters.
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