Clementine Shawlette

Completed: March 2007

Pattern: Clementine Shawlette, Interweave Knits Spring '07

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Pure Silk #27005 (100% silk), 3 x 50g balls (125m each). This is really lovely, though it does have a fair bit of a fuzz "halo" around it. I don't have experience with other 100% silk yarns, so I don't know if this the nature of the yarn or a matter of quality.


Notes: This is made in 2 symmetric pieces and is then grafted together. I substituted this yarn for the Blue Sky Alpaca Silk (50% alpaca, 50% silk) that the pattern calls for. There is slightly less yardage on the Pure Silk, plus I used a size 5 instead of a size 4 needle (just because I don't have size 4). I had 3 hanks of the Pure Silk and I wanted to see if I could get away without using a 4th. Since I didn't know how long to make things, I started out by using one full hank to make each side. I then used a center-pull ball--the outside end for one side and the center-pull end for the other side at the same time. This did help me to evenly distribute the yarn, but it also resulted in a tangled, super-coiled mess towards the end, even though I was trying to be really careful. My shawlette is shorter--only 48", but this is a Christmas gift for my petite aunt, and that length will be plenty, so I did not need to get a 4th hank. I might have been able to squeeze out another inch, but it woudn't have been worth it. If you want to do the full measurements that the pattern calls for from this yarn, get a 4th hank, just to make sure.

The pattern was beautiful and very quick to learn. I had a lot of fun knitting this. I'm not really thrilled about my grafting, though. I've never done Kitchener stitch on a lace pattern before. In the area where there are a lot of yarn-overs, the grafting caused a dimple. Blocking helped some, though it still look awkward.