I can’t believe that it’s finally done, after thirteen years and three and a half months. I completed the grafting of the ends of the edging on Sunday night and immediately set it to soak so that I could block it.
The total stitch count was 198,260, which is WILD! I knitted over half of them in the two months I’ve been working on the shawl this autumn. To make progress on a project, all you need to do is actually work on it. Who knew?!
The edging seemed to take forever, thanks to all those nupps, but they look spectacular, so I don’t regret a moment of it.
I blocked the finished shawl on a hap stretcher that a dear friend made for me. He no longer sells them, but this company in Shetland do: Paparwark
I don’t use the hap stretcher very often, but when I do, it is absolutely the best tool for the job. I did a tutorial on how to use a hap stretcher to block lace shawls a few years ago and you can find it here: Using a Hap Stretcher
The pattern is my own design, the Golden Wheat Shawl (Ravelry link). However, I don’t own the rights to the pattern, and it is now sadly out of print.
I used 2 x 100g skeins of Old Maiden Aunt Alpaca/Silk/Cashmere Laceweight in the Field of Dreams colourway, which amounts to 2,300m (2,600yds). It was a joy to knit with, but sadly Lilith is no longer dyeing yarns.
This is what happens when a project takes thirteen years to complete – the pattern, yarn and tools all become unavailable! Happily though, there are hundreds, if not thousands of amazing large lace shawl patterns that are available, and plenty of beautiful yarn.
If you are picking up a long neglected project, I would love to hear about it in the comments. Happy knitting!