Some shawl planning

A long time back (or, well, a long time given my level of business and tendency to put small things out of my memory), I ordered a copy of The Magic of Shetland Lace by Elizabeth Lovick.

I guess it was backordered or something because it was delayed for about a month (Amazon claims it's now available for Prime delivery, which is why I think it must have been backordered. Or maybe it wasn't out yet when I ordered it).

There are three parts to the book: first, a brief history of Shetland lace plus some tips on designing shawls and instructions on how to do some of the "special skills" they use (like knitting on a border, where you do k2togs or whatever with the edge of the shawl body). The second section is a pattern library of mostly-traditional Shetland lace patterns (which is the main reason I ordered the book). And Lovick would know what's traditional; she lives on one of the Orkney islands. (And she notes things like, "Old Shale" is really "Old Shell," but when pattern collectors asked the Shetlanders what it was called, their pronunciation of "Old Shell" sounded like "Old Shale." And also, "eyelet" sounded like "eyelid," so several of the patterns are called "such-and-such eyelid" pattern, which I find slightly disturbing.) The third part is a very brief section of patterns (a couple shawls, a scarf and hat set, a baby set, and some mitts and socks). I think the patterns are mainly to show the reader how they can design, or provide a "blank" in which a desired stitch pattern can be inserted.

One of my favorite of the stitch patterns, from a quick flip through the book, is one called Margaret's Lace (it is named for the woman who contributed it; there is also a Mrs Hunter's Pattern). Margaret's Lace is designed as an edging - it's little points with a deep eyelet pattern on it. And looking at it, I immediately thought, "I could modify the Hitchhiker pattern to incorporate this." It would only require starting with a larger number of stitches, and the pattern is 12 rather than 8 rows, so it would probably wind up taking fewer repeats....but I want to try it. (I am considering repurposing some Tyrian-purple (and it is, it's called something like "Lydia's Purple") colored yarn I bought for an Ostrich Plumes stole before I realized that the Ostrich Fern one I am currently knitting is almost the exact same pattern. Or maybe the lilac bamboo sockweight I got a good price on when JoAnn's was closing it out...).

I do want to try my hand at shawl design but I admit like a lot of those "big" things, it scares me a little, because I look at it and go, "You have so little knitting time. Do you really want to invest it on something that might not work, instead of going from an existing pattern that you are pretty sure will?" But maybe starting small is the key - first, altering a known pattern, and then maybe altering another one a little more....I think part of it is I'm still really a little unsure of the mechanics of a shawl. With socks, I am more sure of the mechanics and when I get an idea, I can often design the socks without too much trouble. (Though I've never really done anything extremely complex, like making up my own stitch pattern).

Then again, Lovick shows how you can start charting your own lace patterns, how you figure out where to  put the decreases and such. And how you can put designs in "frames" (made of yarn overs and decreases). She actually shows one shawl made with designs in hexagon "frames" that, funny, I looked at it and thought, "That almost looks like mitosis..." which gives me an idea to play around with, whether I could make pretty enough patterns with yarn overs that looked like a stylized version of metaphase and anaphase (the other phases either would be hard to do (cytokinesis) or wouldn't be that interesting (prophase). But if I can chart something out that doesn't immediately scream "biology geek" or look ugly, I might give it a try. At least for a scarf.

However, I have other projects I want to complete first. I'm within 10 "points" of being done with the gift-Hitchhiker (though this is where it takes a while, because it gets very wide). And I have several pairs of socks that are stalled out. And with a little application of time, I could get the second sleeve of Basketweave done....I'm considering taking a Weekend of Slackdom this weekend (not coming in to campus to work) and just staying home and knitting to try to complete some of those things.