For months now, I’ve been back-burner obsessed with having a black lace shawl. What’s back-burner obsessed? I’m defining it as that feeling that pops up when your mind is blank, that wardrobe desire that rears its ugly head when you’re about 90% dressed and looking for that certain ‘Je ne sais quoi’ to feel fully dressed, or that compulsion every time you are staring at your stash trying to decide what to knit next.
I love shawls during transitional seasons – they are a nice layer of warmth without bulk – and black goes with EVERYTHING. I had to have one.
I don’t own black lace-weight yarn. Well-dyed black yarn is hard to find (Don’t believe me – google ‘breaking black dye’ or check this out). I don’t know many patterns that would compliment black lace. And reading your knitting is SO hard in black. What’s a girl to do?
I had to have a black lace shawl, but I didn’t want to knit a black lace anything. Also, I wouldn’t dare ask someone else to knit it for me.
I had previously been operating under the strategy ‘ignore it and it will go away’. That had not been successful. And then, I said something about it out loud. 3 times. Once to the hubs & to 2 different ladies from my knitting group on different occasions, truly hoping that they would call out my crazy and help me put this to bed. Apparently, just like Beetlejuice, saying it three times made it real.
The next thing I knew, a friend had 3 skeins of madTosh Vintage on destash in a color called ‘Victorian Gothic’.
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| I mean, come on. |
It’s a charcoal black, semi-solid (the easier to read your stitches with) and so squishy, I felt like this girl:
Naturally, I pounced.
‘But wait’ – you might be thinking – ‘that doesn’t look like lace, that looks thicker?’ You would be right. This is DK weight yarn, but I told myself that reading DK-weight lace knitting would be easier than lace-weight lace knitting. Bigger yarn, bigger needles, bigger stitches, less squinting? That was my story & I was sticking to it.
I didn’t have a plan, but that was irrelevant. I searched, I queued a few patterns, but nothing was jumping out at me. It wasn’t until months later, when I was hunting around Martina Behm’s Ravelry store that something truly struck me (that buy 3, get 10% off discount gets me every time. She’s an evil knitting genius and I love her for it!).
Simply beautiful, flowing lace. DK weight, adjustable yarn requirements to maximize your yardage. It was love.
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| Before blocking. Always block your lace!! |
And now, it is finished and blocked and beautiful! I wore it yesterday and felt very polished, even though I went to the office, ran errands and spent my afternoon at Firestone. Black lace shawl, be mine!!
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| Photobomb credit: Ellie, the best dog ever |
Donita Westman 