Thursday, June 14, 2007

Shetland Lace Stole Blocking . . . Finally!



After over a year of on and off work, I have finally completed my Shetland Lace Stole. It is my own design although you will probably notice the similarity to both Sharon Miller's Unst Stole and Hazel Carter's Sampler Stole from Gathering of Lace. It is my own creation but like most Shetland Lace I can't call is completely original. None-the-less I learned a lot about designing lace and am excited to begin the next project. Sharon Miller's book, Heirloom Knitting, was a great help.

I used just over two balls of Lacey Lamb for the project. I probably used around 1800 yards or so. Lacey Lamb is a cobweb weight superwash wool and I knit is with a size 2 needle. I would not recommend superwash lace weight yarn because you aren't going to put delicate lace through the spin cycle anyhow. It also makes is much more difficult to splice the yarn. Lacey Lamb is easy to knit though and it blocks beautifully. My only recommendation if you are going to use Lacey Lamb is to work from the outside of the ball. Had I known that it would have saved me hours of untangling yarn.

As for blocking, the final measurements were 35 inches by 90 inches. A little longer than I was aiming for. I used 96 pins to block it. After the painful process of waiting for the stole to dry I will add some more pictures to my blog.




Unblocked

Border

Center


Edging

10 comments:

Colette said...

Hi Lorri,

I came to your blog from the Heirloom Knitting Yahoo group. You did a beautiful job. You must be so proud. I love the Heirloom Knitting book and have used it to create my own designs and also to modify existing patterns. I look forward to seeing your next big project.

Anonymous said...

Oh, my, it's absolutely beautiful! You've done a great job.

Dorothy said...

Very, very beautiful! You should be so proud. You did a great job. Can't wait to see what you tackle next.

missalicefaye said...

It's beautiful--lovely knitting and design! :)

Helen Knits said...

Very beautiful, congratulations. Makes me feel very guilty that I haven't touched mine for months.

Lacefreak said...

What a lovely example of Shetland Lace! Beautiful work. So nice for you that it is a one of a kind as you designed it yourself. Congratulations on it.

AnneB said...

Gorgeous lace! Never tried it probably never will but yours is just stunning. The Shirt Tail sweater you asked about can be seen here
http://tinyurl.com/2ofwzf

miyamojo said...

WOW! It's beautiful!
Lacey Lamb looks good - I've got it in pink and was wondering how it would look.
In awe that you designed it too!
Looking forward to seeing what's next! :)

Unknown said...

Cor blimey! To use an old English expression. This is truly beautiful art.

As for me being a UU, I don't know. I am in the strange situation of believing firmly, if not actually knowing, that we survive death but i am probably an atheist. I can wear that but it seems others can't....

Pinneguri said...

It's very beautiful, yes, and you have really done a great job! The look of it is just pure luxury.

I came to your blog because I knit your lace socks, and I like them too :) But, I hate knitting socks with 3 needles so I wonder if it's only because it's difficult to split the pattern you recomend 3 needles? (It's the same with Cookie A.'s Potamatmous, I just came to the first sock because of the 3 needle-thing :( ) I think I will use 4 needles going onwards ...