Sunday, August 5, 2007

Icelandic Shawl

Although the original looks like a horse blanket to me, the design was appealing enough (and free!) for me to raid the stash for a bit of variegated Richmore Count 10 mohair.


It's not a very exciting knit, especially towards the end, which consists of a bazillion rows of k3tog, then k1p1k1 into one stitch. The yarn is so soft, though, that handling the knitting is a luxurious experience. It's also my favorite shawl design that starts at the bottom with the maximum number of stitches and decreases to the neck edge. So as I get more and more bored, the rows get shorter and shorter. Then it's turned upside down and the edging is knitted on the provisional cast-on stitches.

I am about three-quarters done with the body and have used only 500 meters of yarn, which will leave me enough of this yarn to use for another project.

One tip: k1p1k1 is a lot easier if you use Norwegian Purl for the center stitch.

Still plodding away on the Spider King edging. I think I have knitted sixteen miles of it so far, and am almost at the first corner.

17 comments:

Laritza said...

Love the light variegated effect of the yarn. No "hard" color changes. I was considering it but wondered on how boring it could get......will wait till you finish.

Anonymous said...

BEAUTIFUL!!!!

Batty said...

Very pretty! It's amazing how big a difference yarn weight makes. I know, it's one of those duh things, but I'm impressed every time.

Opal said...

Thank *goodness* I'm not the only who thinks the original is less then appealing. Yours OTOH is just gorgeous.

BTW, I bought from Yubina, you temptress you.

Iris G said...

The original picture made me wonder why so many knitters would want to knit the shawl (according to IK). Now I know why. Thank you!

And I just sent you an e-award (on my blog). It's much better than getting tagged I guess ;-).

Kathy said...

I'm with everyone else here. I much prefer yours to the original. I love the colors and the detail.

Your shawls are beautiful.

Courtney said...

That is sooooo pretty!!!!! I love it :-)

z's momma said...

Love it!

Lacefreak said...

Such beautiful yarn! You know what a sucker I am for varigated yarns! The shawl is lovely even though it sounds like slow torture to knit. I'm impressed with your fortitude.

LittleBerry said...

yours is definitely an improvement on the original!!!!! te colours of the ayrn look pretty.....

What's a Norwegian purl?

Monika said...

I like what I see so far. What is Norwegian Purl?

missalicefaye said...

Lovely! And bears no resemblance whatsoever to horse blanketry in your version. :)

Anonymous said...

I'm making one in horseblanketweight (ie, old stash). I like yours better.
:P

BadCatDesigns said...

Very nice! I think your lighter version will be beautiful. I admired the design but was not taken with the heaviness of it. It looks like you found the solution. I can't wait to see it when you're done.

June said...

What a gorgeous variation! Could you tell me where you purchased the yarn?

Anonymous said...

Wow! That is lovely!

Sue Fulay
http://www.livestitch.com/

Anonymous said...

You can buy beautifull shawls and scarves at www.antiquepashmina.com