Albatross

Shawls are stylish, too! Here's one in the semidark, pretending to be worn:



This is the Unst Stole from Sharon Miller's Heirloom Knitting, knit in 2/28 laceweight silk from Colourmart on 2.25mm needles. I started it at the end of December and finished it today, not quite two months later; I would've finished it earlier if I hadn't set it aside for a month in the middle after getting bored of the edging (which is interminable).

I only made a small change, which was omitting the narrow insertion on the straight side of the edging. I'd already dipped into the yarn for a different project and wasn't sure if I would have enough to complete the pattern as written, so erred on the side of caution. This turns out to have been an excellent idea, because there are only about ten metres of yarn left over.



Given more yarn (or forethought), I'd have been tempted to copy missalicefaye's modification: she added extra repeats of the border grid and filled them with new motifs, to gain a few extra inches of length. Her stole is beautifully proportioned and I think better for having longer borders. (The borders on this stole are each about a quarter of the total length, exclusive of edging, with the centre making up the other half; better proportions might have the stole divided into thirds, so that when you wear it the borders go from fingertips to the edge of the shoulder and the centre is the width of your back. Or my back. I will have to experiment.)



I find that this particular central pattern is a bit irritating to block, because it tends to "pull in" more than the border pattern, which is worked over the same number of stitches. I've knitted a couple other stoles with a similar central pattern and noticed the same annoyance, but didn't think to do anything about it this time; next time I would work the borders over fewer stitches than the centre (not many fewer, just six or eight), and then it wouldn't be a fight to block the long edges straight.



I could also invest in a set of blocking wires to reach the same end, but I kind of enjoy crawling around on the floor with a handful of pins and a measuring tape.