Lace Shawl

Browsing around Ravelry and other blogs, I see that many people have a specialist knitting or crochet subject - hats, socks, shawls, sweaters, toys or whatever.  If I was pushed, I suppose I would have to say that my specialist subject is cardigans - with a particular interest in Fair Isle.  However I do like to have a go at most things.

I have tried socks but I've eliminated them from my list of preferred items to knit.  There are lots of lovely sock patterns out there but I've no desire to make any more - for the time being (never say never!).

I have long been an admirer of the beautiful lace triangular shawls patterns that seem so popular on Ravelry. So I finally decided to give one a go.

This pattern is called Sparrowette and it's by Maja Jokonavic.

A well-written, clearly explained pattern with sufficient pattern changes to keep it interesting.  The pattern is available as a free Ravelry download, here.

The shawl is lovely and light and now it's finished I'm really pleased with it.  Full details of the project and the yarn used on my Ravelry page, here.

I love the colouring of the yarn - the main reason I bought it (apart from the fact that it was reduced price!).  However, it was not pleasant to knit with. The wool content is wrapped around a central core of nylon and this led to quite a lot of twisting and bunching of the wool element. The yarn is now discontinued but I wouldn't have recommended it even if it was still available.

Amazingly I only used about 60g of the 100g ball of yarn but I think I would try crocheting with the remaining yarn rather than knitting.

So would I knit another shawl?  I didn't enjoy the knitting process, but, now that it's finished, if I tried a different lace yarn, I maybe seduced by another of those lovely patterns.

In the meantime, I'm working on yet another cardigan - but sadly not Fair Isle.