Monday, June 11, 2007

Swatching the Kimono Shawl

A few months back, my knitting mentor gave me a wonderful gift:


ten 20g balls of Schewe 100% Baby Alpaca yarn (which I understand has been long discontinued), about 650 yards

I've been dreaming of knitting a lace shawl. The yardage of this alpaca may only be enough for a stole, but is so soft that I'd love to have it in something I drape around me and my neck. After much looking around at various lace shawl patterns, I settled on the Kimono Shawl from Cheryl Oberle's Folk Shawls. (Which, incidently, is the first knitting book I bought, after my learn to knit book, because I'm ambitious like that.) I've knit a swatch:





The top half of the swatch was knit in US size 5 needles, the bottom half in size 6. I prefer the size 6 and am really liking the Addi Lace circular needles that I'm using. I'm really pleased with my swatch, because this is the first lace work I've done (although not the first openwork I've done.)

My gauge is pretty close to what is called for in the pattern, but I've only got 650 yards of yarn, not the 1000 called for in the pattern. My yarn is DK/sport weight, not lace weight. I'm trying to figure out how many stitches to cast on to make a final piece that is a good size to wear - not too short, not too narrow.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can't wait to see it finished :)

The materials & swatch look wonderful!

Anonymous said...

That's gorgeous!

I would go for the 6s, or if it were me, even larger. Lace stitches don't have to be done small.

Wendy Jarvis said...

Great blog I enjoyed reading it.