Fushia forest canopy shawl

Just on the needles this last week is this lovely lace shawl called 'forest canopy' designed by Susan Lawrence. The yarn is the fingering/4ply weight sock yarn from Needlefood called 'kitchen's on fire'. As this yarn is such a lovely blend of fushias, this has now become known as the Fushia shawl (original). The yarn is 80% merino and 20% nylon and has a lovely soft feel as you're knitting. I also decided to knit this on larger needles - 4.5mm instead of 4mm - as I think the lace pattern would benefit and actually stretch more when it's ready to be blocked. The Ishbel didn't have quite as much give so hopefully I'm gauging this one better. If not, I'll try 5mm the next time!

I've knitted about 5 pattern repeats so far and it's knitting up very easily. I've realised the Ishbel shawl maybe wasn't the best lace shawl pattern to start with but that's all the better as this feels a nice and easy knit now! The pattern is nice and logical to follow and visually symmetrical so it's easy to remember and see any mistakes as you go. As usual, lace on the needles doesn't make for very inspiring or clear photographs but I think the colour is pretty close to the real thing this time:-)

I decided to block the sample so far to give me a clearer idea of the finished lace pattern. So, unblocked - above, blocked - below.......

Okay, the pink of the playmat is totally ruining the subtlties of the colours in the yarn - again - but it does give you a much better look at the lace design, doesn't it? Look at the s-t-r-e-t-c-h!!

Much better! This has a light floaty feel to it, unlike Ishbel which is a denser knit. But I bet Ishbel would be this floatly in laceweight:-) You can see the slight colour variations in these close-ups too. Enough to keep the yarn from looking too solid but not too contrastly to fight the pattern. Excellent.

Of course, I know what's going to happen with this shawl. The pattern can be knitted small or large and I'm going to get to the end of the skein and want to go for the biggie. Maybe I should just give in to the inevitable and order another skein now!