FO: Wendy Knits Summer Solstice Mystery Shawl

This is the second year that WendyKnits has done a shawl knit-along in her group on Ravelry, and I’ve enjoyed both of them immensely.  This year, the shawl was called the Summer Solstice Mystery Shawl, and worked out to be a beautiful lacey crescent.

I purchased the Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light on major sale quite some time ago, and have been waiting for the perfect project to use it on.  This is the first time that I’ve used this yarn, and I’ve definitely enjoyed it.  It feels nice as I knit it, and looks very pretty.  It almost seems like it has a little bit of silk in it, but it is actually 100% merino.  The color variations between a dark teal and a forest green really added some interest to the shawl without taking away from the lace pattern.  I would definitely use this yarn again, although I think Madelinetosh as a whole seems to be a little overpriced at full price, so I’d wait for a sale.

I had a lot of fun working on the pattern.  The crescent shaped shawls that I have worked with in the past have had a lacy border, then used short-row shaping to make the crescent shape.  This pattern had a completely different construction.  It was knit in lace wedges, with decreases at the ends of each wedge.  This created the crescent shape while allowing a lace pattern to run up the entire shawl.  It was a lot of fun to knit.

I have a fair amount of yarn (.27 grams/ 119yds) left, and I’m not entirely sure why.  WendyKnits had indicated in her pattern that she used almost all of her 420 yard skein when she made her sample shawl, and my Tosh Merino Light has the same yardage.  I got gauge.  I repeated the last 2 rows of the lace a couple of times, but still have some left over.

The pattern was really good about explaining in each section exactly where to add extra repeats to make the shawl longer.  I didn’t use these modifications, since I didn’t think I would have any yarn left over, but I might if I knit a future version of this shawl.

The pattern also gave the option of using nupps, beads, or neither.  I opted for beads, because I really was not enjoying the nupps.

I do like the way that this turned out, but I do wish it were a tad bit bigger.  I blocked it pretty aggressively, but it’s still smaller than I would prefer.I think that in the future, I might either use larger needles or do all of the optional extra repeats to make it bigger.  I think it will look lovely with my winter coat, though!

Pattern: WendyKnits Summer Solstice Mystery Shawl
Yarn: Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light
Colorway: Forestry
Needles: US5
Modifications: I added 2 extra repeats of the last two lace rows.
Beads: Silver lined clear beads
Yardage: 321 yards
Dimensions:
Ravelry Project Page Link

Want to see what everyone else has finished up this week?  Head over over to Tami’s Amis FO Fridays.