Cozy Knits: Part II

My second design from Tanis Gray's Cozy Knits: 50 Fast & Easy Projects from Top Designers is the Victorian Lady Lace-Border Shawl, a piece that starts with a lace border and is then shaped with short rows in Stockinette Stitch to give it a crescent-y shape. 

© Joe Hancock

The lace pattern I swatched up to begin with is called Vine Lace (from the first Barbara Walker treasury), a super simple pattern that, I believe, is quite pretty.  I had played with this lace once before and, in fact, had included it in a failed magazine submission in early 2008, when I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.  But I couldn't get the lace out of my head, and ultimately loved how it looked in bulky-weight yarn.

And here's my original sketch, showing some dimensions, which I apparently totally ignored when I knit the final sample.

I don't think there was any drama involved in this piece, though I do remember knitting the Stockinette Stitch body twice because I wanted to hide the yarn ends closer to the lace. And then I think I reknit the top edge a couple of times.  Nothing too crazy.  Luckily, in chunky yarn, this only took like one minute.

The specs...

Size: 21" (53.5 cm) wide × 52" (132 cm) long

Yarn: Cascade Yarns PacificChunky (60% acrylic, 40% superwash merino wool, 120 yd/100 g), #20 Baby Blue, 3 skeins.

Needles: Size 11 (8 mm) circular needle, 40-60” (100-150 cm) long

Gauge: 11.5 sts & 15.5 rows = 4" / 10 cm in St st  

You can read more about the shawl on Ravelry here.  And you can see all of the projects from the book here -- I encourage you to check them out.  There's some good stuff in there!