Summer's Shadow Shawl from Hemstitched Heirlooms - Day 4

Life is like a row of lacework...

The nice thing about short rows of lacework is that you don’t really have to worry about getting lost.  This panel, as it flows along the lower edge of all that garter stitch, is definitely knitter-friendly.  Sets of P2s separate the three designs, giving you little milestones in each row.  Hit the P2s when you’re supposed to?  Good—you haven’t dropped a stitch, missed a yarn-over, or messed up some other way.  It’s as if each row has several built-in pats on the back to let you know you’re doing okay.  Not enough of life works like that, in my opinion.

I still can’t decide if the vibrancy of the color is going to overwhelm the clarity of the lacework.  Sometimes, you can have too much going on in a piece.  A textured yarn, for example, will often overpower cables or lacework. Long or subtle variegations generally work okay, but a crowd of color changes rarely allows for the negative space needed to let lacework shine.  Sure, the design will display if I hold this up to the light, or maybe if I wear it against a white blouse, but I usually want my lacework to be really visible.  I want all that hard work to be seen and admired.

That’s not to say it won’t happen with this piece.  You simply can’t tell until it’s blocked—it’s too bunched up right now to show its true character.  I always say it: lacework is like a lot of things in life—parenting, writing, gardening, baking—you never really know what you’ve got until you’re all the way to the finish line.

Forest Gumpian philosophy aside, I am enjoying the progress of this lace as I work my way across the shawl.

Summer's Shadow Shawl from Hemstitched Heirlooms - Day 3

Celebrating freedom--in more ways than one...

Finally, I'm free to turn that magical corner and begin the lace section! 

It’s so energizing to switch to 30-stitch rows, even though I realize I’ll have 342 of them.  The refreshment of something with a bit more substance than all that garter stitch is huge.

I’ll admit to a bit of worry that the business of all these colors—lush and lovely as they are—will hide the lace pattern.  Of course, it’s way too early to give in to such a concern.  This is lacework, after all—you can’t judge it until it’s blocked, much less two repeats in.

One downside is that this project just went up several notches in the concentration requirement department.  Row counters will take care of some of it, but if I lose my way mid-row (which, at 32 stitches per row is easily preventable but not impossible), I’m sunk. That may make the Summer's Shadow shawl a poor choice for public or meeting knitting.  I’ll need to get more familiar with the 12-row repeat before I feel confident venturing out of the house with this.

Lucky for me, it’s a holiday weekend and I have lots of relaxing, uninterrupted knitting time at my disposal. Happy Independence Day, those of you in the U.S.!

PS: I realized I've been using the wrong name for this shawl: it's Summer's Shadow, not Summer Shadow.  My apologies to designer Angelea McGarrah.

Summer Shadow Shawl from Hemstitched Heirlooms - Day 1

Summer lovin'...

While I own many triangle shawls, crescent shawls are always my favorite.  Especially ones with pretty borders like this one.  It’s the perfect mix of basic stockinette adorned by an artful border.  It would be pretty in just about any fiber, but the deep, rich colors of this Zen Yarn Garden Serenity 20 merio/cashmere/nylon blend will make this a favorite, I’m sure.

I had the pattern for the stockinette portion down to memory within a dozen rows of starting. That’s useful, because not having to look down at instructions always makes for faster work.  

I find the double yarn-over to be a clever way to solve the too-tight edge problem many crescent shawls have. It feels easier than the add-a-stitch, drop-it-next-row tactic that so many patterns use.

This yarn, with its striking colors, soft spring, and slight halo of color, reminds me of madelinetosh.  The halo of color seems to add so much depth to the stitches in simple stockinette.  I’m looking forward to how they enhance the lacework border when I get there.

And I will get there.  But for right now, I’ve got a lot of stockinette to get through.  Onward!