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Location: Texas

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Old Shale Lace Scarf





Old Shale is a traditional Shetland lace pattern and has lots of variations. I've made this version, framed in seed stitch, in cashmere for my mother-in-law. Being in garter stitch, it looks nice on either side.

Materials:
Yarn: 100% cashmere 2 ply fingering/lace weight - 400 yards (I used Jojoland cashmere in color C255)
Needles: US size 4 (3.5mm) (I used Clover bamboo straights)
Darning needle
Rust-proof pins (and blocking wires if you've got them)

The Set Up:
Cast on loosely 64 stitches. (I use a knitted-on cast-on - any stretchy cast-on will work)
Knit 3 rows (garter stitch), slipping the first stitch of every row purlwise.

The Pattern:
Row 1 - Sl1, k1, p1, k1, p1, {(K2tog) 3 times, (YO, k1) 6 times, (K2tog) 3 times} repeat 3 times, p1, k1, p1, k1, p1.
Row 2-4 - Sl1, k1, p1, k1, p1, knit across to last 5 stitches, p1, k1, p1, k1, p1.

Repeat rows 1-4 until you've got about 4 yards of yarn left, ending on row 1.
Knit 3 rows of garter stitch, slipping the first stitch of every row purlwise.
Cast off loosely.
Block. (I used blocking wires for the long edges and pins for the fans on the ends)
Weave in ends.

Unblocked, my scarf was about 8 inches wide by 41.5 inches long. After blocking, it was 10 inches wide and 43 inches long. Your mileage may vary.

The length of the scarf was dictated by the amount of yarn I had available. This fully utilitized one skein of cashmere (Ok, I lie - there was about 7 feet left).

The pattern in chart form...

Sorry that it's kind of fuzzy. I had trouble getting it to upload.

On blocking - I usually wet block. This time, however, I put my blocking wires in and pinned it out while the scarf was dry. I then sprayed it 'til very damp and adjusted my pins as necessary. I gave it a full 24 hours to make sure it was dry before unpinning.


10 Comments:

Blogger DeeAnn said...

Very nice! Your mother in law is a lucky lady :)

7:17 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh, pretty!

That is one annoyed looking kitty (in the post below).

11:18 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Very beautiful. A perfect gift.

5:10 AM  
Blogger Marina said...

Gorgeous! Lucky MIL.

7:00 AM  
Blogger Holly Jo said...

GORGEOUS! I bet it feels even nicer. Great gift.

7:22 PM  
Blogger Rebecca said...

What a very beautiful scarf! You mother-in-law will just love it.

10:16 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Pretty! Thanks for the pattern!

10:49 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Question: not to sound completely uninformed, but what are blocking wires?

12:54 PM  
Blogger Knitcrazy said...

LOve the scarf.. Just what I was looking for..
My First Lace scarf.. :)

You say row one ( has the pattern stitches )
Then Row 2-3 and 4 is just (garter ends) and then Knit across those 3 rows???
It doesn't look like your scarf has 3 rows of garter inbetween the one row of shale stitches??
Help.. I am new at this pattern :)

7:46 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

In Denmark: Havskum, in Norway: Bølgemønster, on ravelry: feather and fan.
Interesting old pattern

8:06 AM  

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