Thursday, February 4, 2010

My Wedding Shawl

I was so excited to finally cast on for my wedding shawl. I got engaged last June, but I didn't have time to sit down and really think about which pattern I wanted to use. I bought the yarn a few months ago. I think it was only $36 for 3800 yards of 100% cashmere. How could I resist!

In December I joined the Ravelry group "10 Shawls in 2010." So, while I had finally picked out a pattern, casting on had to wait a little while longer until the stroke of midnight on January 1st. She turned out a little shorter than I had hoped, but I am still loving it:


Pattern: Queen Silvia Shawl by Nancy Bush
Book: Knitted Lace of Estonia by Nancy Bush
Needles: US size 2 circulars
Started: 01/01/10; Completed: 01/25/10

Mods: Since I used cobweb weight yarn, I decided to go down a needle size. Of course, that would make the overall dimensions smaller so I added 4 center repeats. I should have added 10! I also had to change the number of stitches picked up for the edging. At the beginning of the book, Nancy Bush recommended picking up 3 sts for every 2 selvedge sts. I basically did that, but had to add a couple of sts to make it divisible by 8 (number of sts in pattern repeat). I also had to change the bind off. The cone makes binding off with two strands a little difficult, so I whipped out an old skein of Misti Alpaca Laceweight, which is why my bind off edge looks a little thick.

So, there you go. This book is amazing, Nancy Bush is a pattern genius, and the Estonian knitters that she takes her inspiration from are... inspirational!

3 comments:

Stacy Kraus McDonald said...

It's BEAUTIFUL!!! I'm in awe.

Unknown said...

Kristina,
It is so beautiful! I keep looking at lace shawl patterns but know I am not there yet. Did it really only take you a month?

Unknown said...

I think you two need to make a book--I am not kidding. Maybe softcover like brooklyntweed. But your knitting and pictures are so beautiful. Think about it. There are ways we (like the "we"?) could publish it ourselves. That could be my job!