ok, i’m a flake

some months back, when it was, oh, about 100 degrees outside (more or less), michelle and i started scheming on a shawl collaboration using her yarn and my design. we decided that december would be a good time to get started, and that we wanted to work with a snow theme—this decision was based on how well we liked the snow on cedars design.

we had long email discussions about the color of snow, what shape the shawl should be, whether i should try this tricky engineering thing i had in my mind (it didn’t work out), and what other color we might use as an alternate choice. michelle got right on it and within a few weeks had two beautiful colorways

the signature snow squall color

and cranapple, as an alternate choice.

she even delivered the latest batch to me in person, during christmas week.

once i had the final yarn in hand i started swatching. we decided that a square shawl would be wonderful. it will have a triangle version, and possibly a rectangle as well.
this shawl is a little different in that it is a mix of allover patterns and placed eyelet motifs on stockinette background.

the idea of the signature yarn was to pick up all those wonderfully elusive colors that snow
has . . . the ones you can see inside the drifts, or on each little bump in the yard at dusk.
michelle did a brilliant job of getting just that feeling in the yarn.

although using eyelet motifs is a time-proven technique, and not difficult knitting at all, it has been tricky to swatch and develop a design plan because the placement of any motif is dependent on whatever is knit into the fabric before it, what width of fabric you have to work with, and where you are going with the design afterward—everything should align in a pleasing design.

most experienced shawl knitters could probably work their way from the center of the shawl outward and place patterns as they go without too much trouble, and i have done this—you can come up with a pretty pleasing piece almost by accident. if one is off a stitch at any point, it is easy to fudge the alignment somehow and no one will be the wiser.

but now, i have to think about others and how they will read and work the pattern, and really, it needs to be perfect so that they will not have trouble knitting it. hehe.
and therein lies the rub of the design plan. it’s not hard, but it takes time.

placing the motifs in the larger areas as one swatches is, well, akin to placing a flower in the middle of a rippling pond and trying to measure its distance from the shore. you really need to see both the bird’s eye view and the closeup at the same time (and hold the thing in place, too), and if you can write and knit simultaneously with those, you are golden.

there was, of course, lots of swatching (and ripping. definitely lots of ripping)

the effect i am going for is a sort of ombré of patterns from center to hem, beginning with the largest of the snowflake motifs, and progressing to the smallest, then melting into a deep border of pines and more snow.

the yarn is quite fine—a soft (soft!!) merino laceweight. i tried a size 5 needle (bottom swatch) and it was too loose to knit comfortably on it, so i switched to a size 4 (3.5mm).

it is still looser than i’d like, but i will be knitting the piece in the round so i am fairly sure it will tighten up to just the right fabric then.

can we talk about the edging??

ok, it’s not so much talk that i want to do as gaze adoringly and drool. i love this edge. it looks so pretty with the adjoining fabric . . not that i am sure it will be that stitch pattern next to it, but it will be something along those lines

not all the stitch patterns pictured will be used in the shawl, as a matter of fact (ya gotta let me give you some surprises). but the overall look will be something like this

i don’t know yet how much yardage will be needed . . please give me some time on that. michelle has the yarn stocked in her shop, in amounts that are generous for each shawl type, and will be replenishing it regularly. but i don’t have exact yardages (or even close estimates) yet.

so here we go—off on another large big adventure, this time to the land of snow.

thank you all SO much for your patience and help during the server move. it all went very smoothly; the site transitioned quite easily; it just took some time for ISPs all over creation to pick up the new dns. and this morning i got email restored so i think we are back in business.