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January 23, 2006

The Magickal Earth shawl

Before blocking:
before blocking.JPG

After blocking:
blocked.JPG

Close ups:
border detail.JPG

center close up.JPG

The particulars:

The Magickal Earth shawl from A Gathering of Lace. Begun on March 12, 2005, knitting finished on January 18, 2006. Jaggerspun Zephyr, color Suede, less than 8 oz. Size 0 needles. Approximately 54" square.

I love it. I have to admit that I was concerned about how the center moon was going to turn out, but my pattern modification seems to have worked pretty well. (I divided the center into eight sections, did a yo, k2tog all the way around, with a k3tog thrown in at random in each section for the first round, then knit all the way around with a k2tog thrown in at random in each section for the second round. I repeated these two rounds until there were 8 stitches left on the needles.)

The author recommends a blocking technique involving string that sounds more fun than the way I went about it, but I wanted to use my spiffy new blocking wires.

As for how long it took me to complete this project--well, if I hadn't started 12 thousand other projects in the meantime, it probably wouldn't have taken me so long. Highly distractable, me.

Posted by missalicefaye at January 23, 2006 12:08 PM

Comments

forgive me because i don't knit... so, i can't appreciate truly how difficult this was. but, i can tell you that it is BEAUTIFUL!! my question is... now what do you do with it? do you wear it or do you display it somehow?

Posted by: Roni at January 23, 2006 02:42 PM

Bravo!!

Posted by: Cindy at January 23, 2006 03:05 PM

Alice, that is great. You are a knitting rock star!

Posted by: heidi at January 23, 2006 05:27 PM

Well, words just aren't enough! Wonderful, wonderful work of art. You should be so proud of yourself! Thank you.

Posted by: Esther at January 23, 2006 06:39 PM

Amazing! Can't wait to see what lace project you tackle next.

Posted by: Leigh at January 23, 2006 06:41 PM

that is just so amazing. i couldnt imagine ever tackling something of that magnitude! its just beautiful though, great job! and thanks for your comment on lucky, im lovin it!

Posted by: erika at January 23, 2006 10:26 PM

you are a vixen of the highest caliber, miss alice faye, and a hero to all of us who hear the calling of the crafter. i bow down in envy. you're a rock star!!

Posted by: jessica at January 23, 2006 11:04 PM

wow. the unicorns are crystal clear. :)

Posted by: carolyn at January 24, 2006 10:14 AM

Wow, that is fabulous! Very inspiring lace.

Posted by: Amy at January 24, 2006 04:18 PM

that is beautiful!!! :)

Posted by: Christine at January 26, 2006 05:01 PM

Hey, I just wanted to thank you (belatedly) for posting this. I just knit my own magickal earth shawl, and your pictures were a very helpful reference guide at times. I used your modifications for the moon (although with ssk rather than k2tog), since I too had difficulties with the original pattern instructions, and they worked very well. So....thank you again! Your shawl is absolutely beautiful, as I already said awhile ago on flickr, but it bears repeating. :)

Posted by: m4mitchell at April 15, 2007 03:22 AM