Fo: June Shawl

Remember my Winter Shawl, from the A Handsome Lace Triangle pattern in Victorian Lace Today and made in Colourmart’s Extra Fine Merino Double Knitting? Gorgeous yarn – and I had some left, plus a hankering to make Jared Flood’s Juneberry Triangle… and thus, the June Shawl was born.

  • Cast on Date: 11 June, 2010
  • Cast on: garter tab
  • Pattern: Juneberry Triangle by Jared Flood for St-Denis
  • Pattern Price: in booklet of patterns (I got mine from Webs) about $18.95
  • Yarn: Colourmart
    • Quality: Extra Fine Merino
    • Weight: DK
    • Length: approx 475 yards/430 metres
    • Amount: 154g
    • Cost: about £7
    • Colour: Forest
  • Needles: 4.5mm Signature straights
  • Pattern Repeats: As written
  • Size: One size
  • Blocked: Yes, but not hard
  • Finished Size: 50” wide, 25” long – approx 36” along the “wings”
  • Cast Off: Knitted-on lace edging
  • Cast Off Date: June 27, 2010
  • Ravelry Project: June Shawl

Juneberry has bobbles. I detest bobbles – both the appearance and the execution. Obviously I thought carefully about their inclusion. Surprisingly, I opted to knit them. I trust Jared as a designer and I thought that, if he elected to include them then they must have merit in this context. I can tell you that I found myself wishing that I had not decided to knit them – especially when, having breathed a sigh of relief that they were nearing their end, I discovered that the edging also sported a rash of berries.

I soldiered on.

I would love to say that it was worth it but, you know, I cannot.

If there is a next time, and there may well be, I’ll bead instead of bobbling about – and I’ll use large round feature beads about 1cm diameter.

Why do I say that there may well be a next time? Well, because – aside from those bobbles – I had a ball knitting this shawl. It really made me smile – a lot. Fun, fast, full of texture… and so, so pretty. Also, I like it that the shawl is patterned on both sides and there are no long stretches of boredom in it. The edging was particularly fun to knit but took much longer (and more yarn) than I had anticipated – at 20 stitches wide it was by far the widest edging that I have knitted to date.

One thing to watch out for: Chart 2 is abbreviated. It shows only the repeating stitches and the knitter is left to work out how to incorporate the increased stitch count into the chart. It was straightforward enough on the knit side, but the patterning on the purl side defeated my poor, old,  spatially-challenged grey matter. I ended up copying the chart into Excel and making up a chart with centre repeat plus the two increasing ends, to work from. Life got much better after that.

Beautiful scrolls on the edging

My favourite feature of this shawl is the mock cable scroll work on the edging.

Wonderful variety of texture

It is a pretty, pretty thing…

A pretty shawl

…and despite my fears that it would prve to be just a small triangular scarf, it is actually quite big enough, thank you!

Blocked to 50" wide

My first experiement with the blocking wires – and rather a happy one. I love all those even points!

Knitted for both the 10 Shawls in 2010 and Coloourmart Lovers competitions.