Peacock Feathers Shawl

Materials: Jaggerspun Zephyr laceweight, color “peacock”

Needles: size 5 circulars

Pattern: Peacock Feathers Shawl, from Fiddlesticks Knitting

Cast on: June 27, 2007

Finished: July 28, 2007

A friend of mine bought a whole 1 pound cone of laceweight Zephyr. I’m not sure if the realization of just how much laceweight yarn 5,040 yards really is occured to her at the time. A few weeks later, she let me reel off 4 oz, for $10.

A little after that, I entered a gift exchange. The theme was crafty, and the limit was $15, so I thought, hey, why not?

The pattern and the finished shawl are both just lovely. The final product was, indeed, 88″ across and 43″ inches top to bottom - in other words, huge.

This pattern came with a little gauge pattern and specific instructions for a gauge swatch. The idea seemed to be that you knit this little square, block it, and at the end it should measure 7″ across. Fair enough.

I knit the little block on the suggested needles, and it was way too small. I’m a loose knitter, so this was surprising. I moved up 2 sizes, to 6s, and now the block was the right size. However, the lace pattern was, to my eye, unattractively loose. I liked the pattern better on 4s. I did some math, and decided that on 4s, the shawl would be unacceptably small. So I knit the swatch again, on fives, decided that the lace looked OK, crunched some more numbers, and figured that the shawl would come out around 72″ - a nice size. Of course, as I mentioned above, it came out bang on the money at 88″. I’m really, really glad I didn’t knit it at gauge!

I blocked it, as I do most of my large lace pieces, on a plaid flannel sheet. The straight lines are awesome guides. I used 6 long blocking wires and about 182 pins.

I was a bit sad to say “goodbye” to the shawl and put it in the mail, but the recipient seems to be happy with it, so I think that it has gone to a good home!