This is one of those sneaky knitting projects that I have been working on but not really mentioning.
My heritage shawl.
My paternal grandmother is from the Faroe Islands. I am using Faroese wool. I now live in Britain. The wool has a touch of Britain’s Falkland Islands wool mixed in with the North Atlantic wool. Most of all, I am Scandinavian. The pattern by Sivia Harding is called Norwegian Woods which I cheekily, sneakily interpret as “Scandinavian Woods”. I suppose I could have gone for a traditional Faroese shawl, but I had my reasons for choosing this pattern.
The wool is really strange. Snældan 1-ply is over-spun, uneven and its colour runs the gamut from very light grey to very dark grey. It is very sticky, yet easy to work with. It is rustic, yet soft. It’s absolutely fascinating. It blocks out very well too. My only criticism is that it is a teeny bit fuzzy which detracts a bit from the lace. You don’t get a crisp lace shawl with this wool. Instead you get a warm, hard-wearing shawl.
It is an easy lace shawl, comparatively speaking (although I would not recommend it as your first lace shawl) and I have not had any issues with it at all. I will be knitting it again. I also really enjoyed the story the pattern tells – the first third represents “bare branches” followed by “first buds” and then, finally, “leaves”. Knitting this shawl felts like I was knitting the end of winter and beginning of spring. It’s a powerful feeling for a Scandinavian lass like me, I tell you, and one of the reasons why I chose this pattern.
And now I have nothing on my needles! Oh no!
Beautiful! I think I’m gearing up for my first lace project (well, first shawl/scarf, anyway) soon. I like the idea of the three sections to this.
The ingenious part of this is that you can mix these three patterns up too because they have the same stitch count – so if you like to do an extra repeat of one of them, you can .. or if you want to leave one out, you can or .. you get the idea :)
So, what would you recommend as a first lace shawl?
I would recommend the Adamas shawl by Miriam Felton It has an easy stitch-repeat, but is not dull, and it lets you size it according to taste/yarn. Or, if you are not into triangular shawls, my first lace experience was the awesome Woodlands stole by Nikol Lohr which I love, love. I think the real trick is NOT to use laceweight yarn first time you try out lace because it’ll freak you out. I did my first couple of lace projects in slightly thicker wool (DROPS Alpaca and sock wool) and it was much gentler than sitting with something that loks a bit like sewing thread..
Oh! Thank you. I particularly like the Woodlands stole. And thanks for the tips, I’ll bear that in mind.
Beautiful :o)