I just finished a commission for Elizabeth (of the Slouch Beret) for a lace shawl.  She saw me wearing this one this "summer" at the Portland Fiber Gallery.  The fact that it was chilly enough to wear a wool shawl explains the quotation marks.  Elizabeth is an engaging older woman who has simplified her life by wearing only one color....and it is a color that suits her perfectly.  Some might even consider it no color at all.  She favors the soft, off white color of undyed wool.  This shawl is knit from the same material that the Slouch Beret was crocheted from....a merino/alpaca/silk blend that she bought from the Portland Fiber Gallery.

There are three qualities that make lace "read" well.  They are light color, smoothness and shine.  That is why crocheted lace made from white mercerized cotton looks like the quintessence of lace.  This merino/alpaca/silk blend has light color, a slight fuzziness from the alpaca, and a subtle shine from the silk, which explains why you can see the laciness of the pattern more effectively here than you can in my handspun, dark blue version.   The pattern for this shawl, which is actually more of a general guide, is from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitting Around.  I strongly, even forcefully recommend any of Zimmermann's books if you would like to move into what I call "thinking woman's knitting" where you are trying to understand the process and do a bit of design as you go knitting.

As you can see from looking at the lace here I chose to use a feather and fan pattern for the body of the shawl.  Do you see that little wobbly bit in the lace about 4 inches up from the knitted on edging?  That is where I changed the feather and fan pattern from a 4 YO, 4 decrease set to a 6YO, 6 decrease set.  According to Zimmermann's pattern directions you are supposed to do a K2tog, YO row at this point but I didn't want to make a line across the vertical seams of the feather and fan so, in guessing a bit (which is entirely in the spirit of Zimmermann)  I just did the 6 YOs and didn't balance them with any decreases for that one row.  Then on the next pattern row I did only the decreasing necessary to make a 6YO, 6 decrease work.  My recollection is that it went something like this YO K1(5 times) YO, K 2, K2 tog, K2 tog, K2.  This does not result in the doubling of the stitch count that Zimmermann calls for, but since I was only going another 4 inches I didn't think that would matter, and clearly it did not.

This is just another closeup to show you that you really need to streeeetch out lace, and you really do need to pin every single point of the edging.  Someday I am going to get myself some lace blocking wires, but until then I have to use virtually every single straight pin that I own.