Peace Shawl

The lure of something to evoke the meaning of Christmas, what could be more fitting than a Peace Shawl. This wonderful FiberTrend pattern was an absolute joy to knit, that is until I got to the edging. The instructions are available in text and charted format. Although I used to be a text girl, I find the charts are so much easier to knit and to memorise. FiberTrend really does have some of the most superb patterns.

I decided to swap the P-E-A-C-E banner for a sheep banner from the Sheep Shawl. It was one of those spur of the moment things that came to haunt me. The edging is worked with a precise number of stitches and if you use a different banner and get a differnt number of stitches, you'll need to adjust the border. Any wonder why it took me months to finish the border?

Pattern Source: Yarn: # of balls: Notions: Needles: Meterage: Yarn Source: Colour: Size: Started: Finished: Resting Period: Recipient :

FiberTrend Jaggerspun Zephyr 4 oz - blueberry none 3.5 mm 2/18 Knitwitts blueberry n/a 18 Dec 2003 16 June 2004 1 Jan 2004-8 Jun 2004 {surprise}

The Jaggerspun zephyr is a gorgeous yarn. It's really fine but the silk and wool work amazingly well together. The silk gives it the most fabulous sheen and the wool gives it an elasticity that silk along would never have. When blocking, I put in a cold bath with a bit of gentle detergent, and I soaked it until the water ran clear. The colours really bled.

I bought the shawl as a kit and found that I only used about 75% of the yarn. There's still plenty left. I would definitely use the Zephyr again, in fact, I'm going to ply it up to 4ply weight.




Blocking out lacework makes all the difference.

Project Notes

1. I just followed the instructions and did exactly what it said. Starting a Fiber Trend Shawl is always fiddly, but since you from beck edge with a few stitches and work your way down, mistakes can be easily ripped.





2. I didn't do the banner, instead, I used the sheep border from the sheep shawl (another Fiber Trend pattern). That left me with more stitches than if I had done the Peace banner. Since the edging with was in eights, I compensated with garter stitch to make sure that I had 16 extra stitches. I could had cheated by joining 2 stitches instead of one on a few of the edgings and would had done this, but I did read the pattern and worked it out beforehand. Each edging repeat is comprised of 16 rows, with 8 stitches worked off the shawl edge.



3. I did a wet block, basically washing/rinsing the shawl until the yarn stopped bleeding. I left it to soak for 30 minutes and used some mild detergent. I meant to add a cap of vinegar for the final rinse, but all I had was balsamic vinegar (the 15 year old stuff), so I passed.

4. It told me months to do the edging and just days to do the rest of the shawl. I found the edging really boring to do and hard to memorise. I don't know why, I'm usually very good with memorising patterns.



Anyway, it's finally done, thanks to a nudge from Rowanette Tessa.


Dragged out into the garden on a Saturday evening for the photoshoot. The neighbors do think I'm nuts, but that's OK.




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