Mystery Shawl

Things are moving along quickly on the cardigan -- I've finished the first sleeve and am nearly halfway across the back, already. And still loving it. I even closed the sleeve seam, so I could try it on and make sure things are fitting right. But we'll talk about that next time... Today I want to show off something else:


This is my completed Anniversary Mystery Shawl (begun here or found on Ravelry here) blocking out on my bed. I think the light blue of the sheet really makes the Ruby colour pop out. Or maybe I'm just biased to think this thing is really really pretty.

Would you believe that I didn't even measure it when it was blocking?? My estimate is about 45 inches across. It fits me comfortably, folded in half to make a semicircle, just covering my shoulders and crossing in front enough to close it with a nice pin (note to self: get a nice pin.) Yeah, I didn't get a photo of me wearing it like that either. But look, a close-up of the center!


For those of you who haven't been following along, this was a mystery shawl, which means that I didn't really know what I was making until it was finished. I mean, I knew it was a shawl, but I didn't know what it would look like in the end. This particular mystery was amped up a bit by giving knitters a choice, at each clue from 1-4, four options of what lace pattern to knit. If you have a Ravelry account, go check them out with the link above -- there are so many variations that it's hard to not want to knit another.


This photo is an attempt to show the various lace patterns close up. For the record, I chose clue D for the first three clues, and then C for the last one. There was no rhyme or reason to my choices, just intuition. I thought the chart to make the second clue looked like little ladybugs, and for the fourth, I liked the motif that looked like it would be feathers or evergreen trees. They both turned out pretty much like I had anticipated.

Overall, I really enjoyed this project -- a mystery is always fun, and knitting lace is so engaging. Especially when the yarn (JaggerSpun Zephyr wool/silk laceweight from my stash of leftovers, if you really want to know) is free.