Lace Shawl

Sigh. Started another project without much thought or advance planning. Then I (rather foolishly) told the Maryland State Fair that I would be submitting it for judging. So now I have a bit less than three weeks to finish it.

All that said, it is coming along beautifully. It is a lace shawl, and I am actually following a pattern (no really, the only change is to the yarn. Well, and the needle size. But, the rest, I swear, is following the pattern). The pattern is Ilo, by Heidi Alander. It is a two-color, triangle lace shawl using something akin to the feather and fan stitch.

For my main color, I used some rough handspun. I spun from the lock, and I mixed mostly white lincoln wool with colored mohair locks in pink, purple and blue. It came out quite pastel. You can read more about it here, here, and here.

Mohair locks

Lincoln locks

Singles yarn on the spindle

Pastel yarn in the skein

For my contrasting color, I used a gray yarn that has been sitting in my stash for awhile. It is either laceweight or cobweb weight, and I once made a lace shirt out of it.

Fine gray yarn

It is a mystery yarn, since I bought and balled it before I documented every purchase on Ravelry. I think I bought it in college though, and I know that I got it from a vendor at the science fiction convention Arisia. It feels like wool. It is VERY fine, and quite delicate. I am doubling it for this project, to more closely match the weight of the other yarn.

Yarn across my hand, for scale

So, the project started out well.

Beginnings of the shawl, with balled yarn

I was a little worried that because the shawl is a triangle, the blocks of color would look odd: early on, the blocks would be large, but later they would be narrow. So far though, that hasn't happened. It looks fine, I think.

Current state of the shawl, as of Aug 5th

What has happened is that I have discovered that one of the balls of the gray yarn has gotten damaged. I don't know what caused it, but there are many breaks in the yarn. This means that I have to splice a new thread every row or two. An unpleasant surprise, to be sure, but not insurmountable.

Well, since I have some baby-free time today, I should be knitting, not blogging! Off I go.