A lace shawl looks complicated, but it's actually pretty easy.
I don't remember where this shawl first popped up, but once I saw it I knew I wanted to attempt to make it. I had never knitted anything involving lace before—in fact, my whole knitting career has been to avoid creating holes in my knitted pieces! I decided I wanted to try this as a gift for my mom.
I ordered the pattern and the specified yarn from a great website: expressionfiberarts.com. The instructions were very clear and even included a video tutorial, which was helpful to get started.
But once I started knitting, it worked up very quickly. The pattern alternated rows using a single yarn with rows using two different yarns knitted together. However, I quickly learned that lace knitting looks terrible when you've just finished—the project needs first to be blocked (a process in which the yarn is dampened and then laid flat with pins to coax it into its final measurements.) The blocking process transformed the piece, and I am very happy with the final result (as was my mom!)
