More Shawl shapes for Shetland lace knitting

I have combined a couple of shawl shape workshops here, this photo is from the second one. 

The first one was a mini triangular shawl. It is worked in garter stitch, making it reversible, and uses traditional Shetland lace patterns. As the circular pattern ( details in previous blog post here) it is designed so that once the techniques are understood then it  could be made bigger to suit the knitter. (1) 

For this shawl I used some spare Jamieson and Smith Supreme 2ply that I had naturally dyed  with Alchemilla and Madder. 

The knitting starts at the centre top with a few stitches and gradual increases enable the centre section to be completed, the edging lace is then worked and the shape ‘appears’ after casting off. This one, as all the others, was dressed by pinning out when damp and allowed to dry fully. 

I really enjoyed this pattern and it was very interesting to see the shape form. I felt that the combination of this yarn and 3.25 needles gave just the right combination of ‘knitting and holes’.

I have already described the second workshop of the circular mini shawl (post of 18Feb 22)

The third workshop was for a Mini Crescent Shawl. This also starts in the centre of the top and the pattern of increases gives the lovely crescent shape. As in the first workshop described above the outer lace is knitted on once the required number of stitches is reached. 

Completed shawl 

This time I decided to modify the cast on as I had never done a ‘tab’ cast. I decided I needed to do some samples. 

In the three samples below: 

The top one shows the pattern, cast on the small dip would be closed invisibly by a few stitches, as in the Fladda shawl

The middle one shows a tab cast on with the same sized needles, I thought this gave a slight upward protrusion 

The bottom one - I thought I would try the tab with smaller needles, so used size 2.5

Tab trials 

In the actual knitting I used the bottom method of these three above and am pleased with how it turned out. 

As you can see this time I naturally dyed the yarn a glorious shade of yellow. This is from Genista Tinctoria which was my first dyeing of the year. I used the prunings I took and left those to soak for about a week. The yarn was scoured and mordanted by my normal methods. It was a jolly colour to get from dyeing and to knit with during which can often be called ‘dull January’. 

I was delighted with the shawl. The crescent shape appeals to me and I hope to have a go at using the ‘methods’ of this shawl to see if I can scale this up, whilst using some different motifs before too long. 

Earlier I had knitted the Fladda shawl pattern from Elizabeth which again is worked from the neck down. (The outer edging of this shawl is knitted on much like in the circular one described in the last blog post. ) I have described much more about the Fladda shawl in the post of 14 Sept 21 and I can vouch for the ease and comfort of wearing a crescent shaped shawl compared to a more traditional triangular one, simply expressed… it stays ‘put’ better! 

I have enjoyed these workshops very much and learnt things I didn’t know I needed to know, which is always great. I am a great believer in learning for life. A dear uncle ( I only had one uncle) once wrote in a book he gave me: ‘Live as if you would die tomorrow, learn as if you would live forever’. Wise words. 

1. More details available from elizabethwilliamsonknitting which also included details of Elizabeth’s online workshops.