The Last Project of 2008

On my flight home the air steward (the one who knit) recommended that I visit Loop in Halifax if I had a chance. I didn't have much time in Halifax - I arrived in the evening and was due to be on a train bound for home at noon. However, the disaster of running out of yarn for Kali's mittens coupled with the happy realisation that Loop was a short walk from the hair salon (I had to get my hair cut, my hair was a mess) convinced me to add the shop to my morning itinerary.

Loop is a great shop with very friendly staff and if that isn't enough (it is) it is attached to a cafe where I had one of the best latte's I've ever had. Not to mention some delicious home made toffee that the barista kindly gave me.

Unfortunately I was on a bit of a mitten wool mission so I didn't have much time for browsing but I did allow myself to be distracted long enought to grab Knitted Lace of Estonia. Which of course meant I needed some laceweight yarn so I grabbed a couple of skeins of the ever reliable Jaggerspun Zephyr in a deep green colour.

Knitted Lace of Estonia is a lovely book, but I expect if you are a lace knitter you know that and probably have a copy already. If you don't - what are you waiting for?

After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing I settled on Madli's Shawl (which had been on my 'to knit' list for ages, it was also published in Interwerweave Knits Summer 2004). I wanted a wider, longer stole than the version in the book so I added additional repeats of the pattern (width and lengthwise).

I cast on at home in New Brunswick and worked on it on the train journey to Halifax and the flight back to London. A truly international creation!

The pattern in the body of the stole is pretty easy to remember and is fine for train (or TV) knitting. There are lots of nupps in the pattern - but as I've said before once you learn to do these they aren't bad at all. (If you are struggling there is a tutorial by Nancy Bush on Youtube. The key is to make the nupp stitches CRAZY loose. When you knit the stitch actually pull the right hand needle to the right to make the stitch longer, use your thumb to keep the YO's long. The stitches should look really odd alongside the other stitches because they are that loose.)

The details:
Madli's Shawl from Knitted Lace of Estonia and Interweave Knits, Summer 2004
3.5 mm needles
2 full skeins (1260 yards) of Jaggerspun Zephyr (50% wool 50% silk)

Unblocked size: 52" x 21"
Blocked size: 70" x 22"

The stole is held closed in the picture above with a lovely shawl pin by Romi.