Thursday, May 22, 2008

Slow Bee Mystery Shawl in progress



Tomorrow Monika will release clue 3 of the Faroese style Slow Bee Mystery Shawl for the knit-a-long in progress. I am finally caught up after starting almost a week behind after a yarn disaster (my first choice yarn turned out sold tangled in the skein and I just was NOT going to untangle 1533 yard skeins of black laceweight merino/silk). Instead I went with white tencel. It's quite nice, but unfortunately I chose needles a couple of sizes too big. I started with 5s, pulled back to 4s, and really should be working on 2s or 3s.

This is clue 1 finished, draped over the chair because it is already so big I cannot show it well spread out on the needles.

Here is the detail of clue 2 on the side panels. Note the sheen of the tencel (though in fact the photo exagerates this; it does not truly have so much sheen; it is more like linen than like silk).

Here is detail of the center panel. I think this shows how I needed to use smaller needles for better definition of the lace stitch pattern.
I am quite happy with my shawl so far. It is already at over 300 stitches at the end of clue 2 so I suspect it is going to wind up quite large, which will be lovely but may be tedious to work towards the end.

For anyone who wants patterns for similar Faroese shawls or more information, I recommend the books Shawls and Scarves or Stahman's shawls & scarves : lace Faroese-shaped shawls from the neck down

6 comments:

Peggy said...

Your shawl is turning out just gorgeous!!!!! I'm still plugging away at clue 1. It seems I have very little knitting time these days. Particularly if it requires my attention like these lace projects do.

Lamzie Divy Woolens said...

Your shawl is looking beautiful. You will have another treasure when it's finished.

Leesy said...

Thank you for your kind words. It is funny how as I work it I only focus on the tiny mistakes, while when I see the photos I have to step back figuratively and appreciate the whole effect. It's okay if not every project is "county fair" quality; this one is definitely on its way to being loved.

Reluctant Penguin said...

Wow! It is gorgeous!

LDSVenus said...

Well I think it is beautiful. I bet you are excited to see the finished shawl, I will expect a picture of the blocked shawl so we can all admire it with you :).

Leesy said...

Thank you! I can't wait to finish it. We are still on clue 3 this week, and up almost to 400 stitches per row, with no end in sight. I don't know how many clue weeks we are to expect. The shawl isn't really very long yet, but I can't imagine it can grow to but so many more stitches per row before it becomes just impossible to work.
I have 8 more rows to go on this clue, then I'll take more pictures. The pics definitely make the whole piece seem more real and more complete.