Nurmilintu Shawl – a detailed look

I usually only do these posts for big projects like cardigans, but I feel this shawl deserves its own post.

Details

Pattern:

Nurmilintu by Heidi Alander

Yarn:

One skein of Coastal Colours hand dyed 50% Yak/50% Mulberry Silk, 4 ply/fingering weight. It doesn’t have a colour name, but it’s a deep green with hints of blue, gold and copper. Lovely to knit with, beautifully soft and is even more lovely now it has been blocked.

Cost:

Free pattern on Ravelry. The yarn cost £28.

Timeline:

Started – 13 August 2019

Completed – 6 September 2019

Link to Ravelry page.

Pattern summary

This was my first pattern that only had a lace chart and no written lace pattern. I pretty quickly decided to write out the stitches from the lace chart and worked from my written instructions. On the first round of the lace section I went wrong a few times and my count was off and I kept having to fudge the stitches towards the end of the rows. On the 2nd lace section at row 11 I was starting to go wrong again. I then searched Ravelry to find the Designer’s group and check her forum pages to see if anyone else was having trouble and was relieved to find I was far from alone.

The issue is that the repeating lace chart is 9 stitches long, so of course I put markers every 9 stitches to keep me on track. But on row 11 you have a stitch that uses both stitches on either side of that stitch marker, like you would in a SSK or K2tog. What Heidi explained on her forum (but not the pattern) is you have to move your stitchmarkers out of the way on row 11. So after some tinking back I restarted row 11 and had success and I think the 2nd lace section is correct now, I’m more confident the 3rd lace section is spot on.

I had thought about ripping it all out and using the yarn for another project, but I’m glad I did the research and persisted.

Oh it’s also my first picot edge too!

Yarn summary

Oh boy this yarn is a joy to look at, to knit with, to touch and to have around my neck. The depth of colours they’ve managed to get is gorgeous and it was definitely worth the price tag. It feels light as a feather on but is warm. It will be interesting to see how it lasts. I picked this colour as I thought it would tone nicely with my Chimney Fire cardigan, hurry up cold weather!