lace love

I started a shawl. Right, I know. It doesn't sound like much. Back in the day, I used to knit shawls all the time. But its been a really long time and I just hadn't been feeling up to dealing with charts and complicated lace gymnastics for ages. 

That all changed over the weekend, when I found myself stranded in the country with nothing much to do. Well, that's not entirely true - there was a lot of weeding to be done, but after spending some time doing that in the hot sun, I was ready for something different. 

Fortunately, I had thought ahead. Although I brought along a pair of socks in progress, I also brought books and yarn for a couple of maybe-projects. One of these was Nancy Bush's Knitted Lace of Estonia. I'd been wanting to make Miralda's Triangular Shawl since I got the book, and had even bought yarn (yes, I bought yarn) to make it with. The yarn was Judith MacKenzie McCuin's "Natural Shetland Fingering" in Moorit. 

So, by Sunday afternoon I was pretty much burnt out on weeding, and decided to cast on for Miralda's shawl. This is one of those shawls that starts with five gazillion stitches cast on (well, more like 331, but that's a bunch), and decreases as you go along. I know a lot of people don't like that method of making a shawl - the reasoning I've heard is that if you make a mistake at the beginning, with all those stitches there isn't any time to get into the groove of the lace slowly, you have a huge mess on your hands. 

However, I like shawls like that. Its not an easy start, but I love the fact that the number of stitches decreases as you go. Way easier to gain momentum that way, for me at any rate. I always seem to bog down on the shawls that start with very few stitches and then work their way up to rows with hundreds and hundreds. I have way more enthusiasm at the beginning, so the huge cast ons and consecutively shorter rows works better for me. 

This is how the shawl looked about ten minutes ago. Not a great picture, but I'm messing with a lot of stitches on a 32" circular needle and the sun playing peek-a-boo this morning. 

I had a few moments of doubt about the color. While I thought a dark, Moorit shawl would be nice to wear, it can be hard to see the detail. But I keep telling myself that its not blocked yet. Holding it up to the light does erase a lot of the doubt - 

I am worried, though, that the nupps aren't going to show as well in this yarn as they might have in a lighter yarn. And there are a lot of nupps, at least in the section of the chart I'm working on now. 

Can you see that triangle of nupps there? Trust me, there are lots of them. 

What I'm finding is that I'm still in love with lace. Although I had an idea that I didn't want to "fuss" with a "complicated" lace chart, I'm not finding this one difficult at all. I'm remembering why I love lace in the first place. The rhythm and flow of the stitches, the thrill when the chart just makes sense and you can knit a 20 stitch repeat from memory after the first go 'round. The weird thrill that the symmetry gives me when I cross over from the center stitch and have to wrap my brain around a slightly different placement of the stitch markers in the pattern. 

Then there are the nupps. I love nupps. I love the strangeness of turning one stitch into a bulging mass of multiple stitches, and the neat finish when I get to purl them all together and tame them into a single stitch again on the next row. And the weight that a nupp gives to the finished shawl, the texture and mass of the nupps amidst all those open stitches and yarnovers is just incredibly ... pleasing. 

Yep, I'm having fun. I'm on the big chart, row 12, if anyone is interested. Now, back to my nupps. 

Comments

[Juno]

Awww. That's purty.

[Juno]

Also, am near speechless at the idea that you doubted your lace knitting destiny. You. You who got your shawl mojo on my in 2005 and corrupted me into a shawl knitter.

[Maia]

Beautiful! I love a shawl in a natural wool color. I think it will be fabulous once blocked.

[Yarndude]

Good luck with the shawl! It looks beautiful, and I'm sure all the details will stand out very well once it's blocked. I've been wanting to make this pattern in a natural color as well. Looks like you beat me to it.

[Sue H]

Looks like a beautiful WIP. Those nupps will pop once you block it. Can't wait to see those pictures! Happy knitting.

[Caroline M]

It looks lovely and you just know that the pattern will pop when blocked. I'm a fan of shawls that start off small so that I have chance to mess up a new pattern while I'm just on a few stitches. There is also the small matter that although I know all the tricks to casting on a ton of stitches (512 in my case) I can still shoot myself in the foot (that 512 - well it should have been 522).

[Jody]

Oh that looks beautiful. Is that Shetland soft? I just got a soft grey yearling shetland fleece. I look forward to seeing your knitting in progress!

[Sara]

I think I need some of that lace mojo. I have done a few simple very simple lace-ish things (cat paw scarf) and I started a nupp-filled stole and got probably 12 inches into it. Then I started Hanami and it's not a complicated lace pattern but I got off somewhere and have not been able to right it. Even though every other row is a purl row, even though I have tinked back at least 6 rows now - it just doens't make sense with my brain.

I can't decide if I just don't have a lace brain or if I just need to see the light somehow...

love yours though ;)

[Kate]

Divine!

And what you say about wanting to start big and then get smaller to maintain momentum rings very true!

[Carmen]

Gorgeous! Once blocked, it will be a gem!

[Melanie]

Beautiful! I should try starting big... Having hundreds of stitches at the end of a project always discourages me from finishing those last two or three inches...

[Sylvia]

It is as much about tactile texture as visual texture. Be patient. Blocking will prove your choice of yarn was excellent.

[knittingoutloud]

Gorgeous shawl!

[Cassa]

Beautiful shawl! The yarn is so yummy-looking.

My problem with starting out at the larger part of the triangle when knitting a shawl is that invariably I find myself wanting to expand and enlarge the pattern to make a bigger shawl. Kinda hard to do that when you're working your way to less sts!