I have finaly been victorious over the yarn elves that were sneaking into my knitting bag all summer and adding extra yarn to my ball. The Spiderweb Shawl is finished!!
You may remember back in July I started with this, 1300 yards of laceweight handspun BFL in the Tulip colorway from Spunky Eclectic.
I decided to use it to make a Spiderweb Shawl from Victorian Lace Today, but I wanted it to be different than the one in the book. I loved the geometric design on the shoulder part of the shawl, but I wasn’t to keen on the more open lace for the bottom half of the shawl. I wanted it to realy envoke the spider web it had been inspired by.
So, I began addapting the pattern. I dropped charts B and C from the shawl and decided to work chart A until I ran out of yarn. At the time I didn’t fully comprehend just how much yarn that was. I stuck with the size 7 needles the pattern called for because I liked the drape of the fabric. The pattern is written for either a half or a full hexagon, but neither shape seemed like it would stay on the shoulders without some wrestling or constantly having to be readjusted. I wanted to be able to put it on and then move freely in my daily activities.
Being the geometricaly obsessed person that I am, I could see that if I made the shaw with 4 wedges instead of 3 or 6 that it would give the shawl a shape very similar to a Farose shawl. It would have extra length in the front to keep it anchored as I did….whatever it was I was going to be doing. So I started in on the project.
I knit, and I knit, and I KNIT, but my ball didn’t seem to be getting any smaller. Every night I would think that the hole in the middle of the yarn cake was getting bigger, and every morning it would look just the same. That is when I decided yarn elves were adding to the cake at night.
After 2 months of knitting (with some breaks for spinning and knitting socks. I would have gone insane without some breaks!) It looked like this
Just a little bit bigger than the book. This was going to take forever! I decided I was tired of having this project hanging over my head and that I wouldn’t knit anything else until it was done!
Well, here we are a month later and it is finaly time to reveal the finished product!
Here it is in its pre-blocked state. It is dwarfing our Queen sized bed.
I had to block it on the floor and it took up every last inch of free floor space in our master bedroom! I had to stand on the bed to get a full shot of the lace amoeba
I could have used some blocking wires to make the edges all straight, but I love that the points add to the natural spidery-ness of the whole thing. It is going to be my Halloween costume. I am going to wear it while I hand out candy this year.
Here is a closeup on the center detail
And here is how much yarn is left over from the 1300 yards I started with.
(BIG SIGH OF RELIEF!)
October 27, 2007 at 6:15 pm
Oh my godness! This is an incredible beautiful shawl!!! I absolutely LOVE it! I did have the book, but gave it away as a gift. I never “saw” that shawl, in there. Boy that’s a great job you did there! ;o)
October 27, 2007 at 7:24 pm
Wow!! you have created a BEAUTIFUL shawl! I have to go find that pattern in the book. Great to see what you have been up to, thanks for sharing!
October 27, 2007 at 8:19 pm
Oh wow I really love your version!!! I wanted to make that one too, maybe I’ll do it with four sections too, it looks like it would fit much better. 🙂
October 27, 2007 at 11:11 pm
This is really wonderful. The yarn you used was really effective with the spider web, way to go! I could have never had the patience!
October 27, 2007 at 11:49 pm
lovely shawl… look forward to some modelling shots….
October 28, 2007 at 5:23 am
oooohhhh, that Is lovely. The colors are so great. I like the way the colors blossom together.
October 28, 2007 at 5:43 am
This is just incredible. Once again you are inspiring me to do bigger things.
October 28, 2007 at 7:52 am
Wow
October 28, 2007 at 10:25 am
That is amazing! I had to call Travis over to the computer so we could Ooooh and Ahhhh together. I’m so glad you had just enough yarn to use, too. 🙂
October 28, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Thats gorgeous!
October 28, 2007 at 12:37 pm
You, my knitting friend, totally rock.
Also, I wish the elves would add to my yarn cakes at night – instead, they subtract.
HEY! Maybe they’re bringing MY yarn to YOU!!! No FAIR!!!!!
(Nah, your yarn is prettier than mine – you’d probably notice the difference.)
October 29, 2007 at 10:02 am
Wow, that is stunning.
October 29, 2007 at 3:45 pm
Wonderful! And the spinning must have been an incredible effort too!
October 29, 2007 at 6:33 pm
Gawjus. Truly stunning. How many ozs did you start with? Curious as to your mileage.
Necia
October 30, 2007 at 4:25 pm
What an accomplishment. I’ll have to pass as it would take 3 months of spinning and 3 years of knitting.
October 31, 2007 at 12:59 pm
holy smokes, that’s one lovely shawl 😀 I’m so envious of your singles!
November 2, 2007 at 11:30 am
wow.
just wow.
that’s AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!
November 3, 2007 at 5:51 am
It looks STUNNING
VERY impressive!
It would be sinful if it didn’t become a much treasured family heirloom!
November 5, 2007 at 1:29 pm
I LOVE that shawl!!! I also love all the points.
November 14, 2007 at 8:27 am
Wow, those are GORGEOUS!
July 20, 2009 at 2:39 pm
This is beautiful. But can we convert this to crochet. I need one for Halloween?