Pattern: Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn A Clark, first published in Interweave Knits Fall 2006, and now available for free from her website
Yarn: Wollmeise Sockenwolle 100% Superwash in “Vergißmeinnicht”, 108g - got to love the generous size of the Wollmeise skeins!
Needles: 4mm Prym circs

I had resisted the lure of the Swallowtail pattern for some time. I’d admired Diane’s for a while, but with plenty of other shawls to knit it wasn’t high on my list. Then Kay and Kai finished theirs in quick succession and I suddenly got a real urge for nupps.

This shawl is made extra special by the yarn I used - the one skein of Wollmeise that I bought before everyone went loopy over it and now you can’t get a skein unless you have ninja website stalking skills. Which I am too lazy to try to attempt. This skein has been sitting in my stash for a year, with the occasional petting, waiting to be used. I realise that I could have probably sold it for a stupid amount of money on eBay, but I can’t help feeling that yarn is meant to be knitted and enjoyed, rather than hoarded just so that I can say I have a skein of rare yarn. Anyway, being made into a shawl means that the yarn will be seen and have a lot longer life than if it was worn on the feet. Sadly, the colours just don’t photograph well. The yarn is a blend of blues and teals, but it looks almost solid in the photos. So you’ll just have to trust me when I say that it is shimmery and jewel-like.

The pattern was the usual Evelyn Clark masterpiece. Beautifully written and clear and not a head scratching moment to be had. And a quick knit, easily completed in four days. Like Kay, I don’t see why a new lace knitter couldn’t knit this shawl. The only really tricky manoeuvre is the p5tog for the nupps, and that’s not hard, just fiddly. I found using a 2mm needle to purl the stitches together worked best for me.

I really like the size of this shawl and think it’s very wearable, though this one is destined to be a Christmas present. Does anyone have any recommendations (other than Icarus, which I already have my eye on) for triangular shawls of a similar size? I could knit smaller versions of patterns such as Forest Canopy or Matilda or Flower Basket, but I like the different pattern elements in Swallowtail. Maybe I need to sit down and see if my designing mojo can help me with this one…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 at 11:02 am and is filed under My Year Of Lace, finished projects. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.