FO: Prairie Rose Shawl

Last week before heading out to Oberlin, I finally wove in the ends and got pictures of Prairie Rose.  It was actually my second version of the shawl, because the first one was a gift for one of my professors.  I finished both of the shawls I was knitting as gifts with plenty of time to spare, but almost immediately cast on for a second Prairie Rose for myself because the pattern was so fun!

This shawl is a very different color than the ones I usually make - most of the shawls in my shawl drawer are either jewel tones or lighter shades of pink or purple - but I like the finished product a surprising amount.  I've really liked mixing neutrals in the last few months, so I think this shawl will be great for pairing with creams and greys.  It's definitely less striking than the first one I finished, which was a deep turquoise, but beautiful nonetheless.  The yarn didn't soften as much as I expected on washing, but it's still very light and warm.  It's probably the most rustic lace I have.

The pattern threw me a little because only the right side rows are charted, which makes "reading" the lace pattern a little more difficult.  There's a weird art to reading charts as a whole rather than line-by-line.  They mirror the final look of the lace almost exactly, but you have to know how to look at them correctly.  Almost like those Magic Eye books that were popular when I was a kid - mystifying at first, but once your eyes find the shapes you can't un-see them.  They're great for me because I have to have a visual sense of the motif before I start knitting - the first lace scarf I ever knit, I was frustrated by the line-by-line instructions the whole time because I had no idea if what I was knitting looked the way it was supposed to.  Anyhow, one I memorized the way the pattern looked and didn't have to rely on the squished-up chart so much, the knitting hummed right along!

Pattern: Prairie Rose Shawl, by Evelyn Clark, from The Knitter's Book of Wool
Yarn: Cashmere America 2 Ply Cashmere, almost all of a 437-yard skein.  Yarn is discontinued.
Needles: Size 5 (3.75 mm) US Addi Turbo Lace
Modifications: I did one extra repeat of Chart B, with very little yarn left to spare.