A Shawl Fit for a Mermaid

It’s done! I am so pleased with the way this shawl turned out considering that I didn’t have a clue what I was doing when I started it. I had eight balls of Knit Picks’s scrumptious Suri Dream yarn in the color called “Ocean” and I wanted to make a shawl which would replace my old gray Garter and Lace shawl which has seen a lot of wear. The yarn is unimaginably soft and warm.

Since I love the way the Garter and Lace Shawl drapes and falls I decided to use the same method starting at the top center and increasing 4 stitches on all even rows - 1 on each end and 1 on either side of the back center row. I decided to knit in stockinette stitch instead of garter stitch and used a Size 10 needle.

My original plan was that it would be knit solid for 20 inches to provide extra warmth around the neck and shoulders but then gradually become lacier toward the bottom. After I had 20" knit in plain stockinette, I started working the first pattern stitch was something I copied from a Lily Chin sweater in an old issue of Interweave Knits Magazine. After a few repeats of that, wanting it to become even lacier, I changed to a modified Horseshoe stitch which ultimately would up looking like waves - rows and rows of waves.

Finally I made a rather funky edging by working a diamond shape in Mermaid Tail Lace (from a Barbara Walker book) between each wave. I knitted each diamond separately, broke the thread and picked up on the next one. To give a neater finish, I worked a rown of single crochet all along the bottom going up and down each side of the diamonds with 12 sc per side. And - voila! - a shawl in Ocean green with a pattern of waves and Mermaid’s Tail lace. A shawl fit for a Mermaid!

The finished dimensions are 84" x 42" - a generous size for chilly autumn mornings in Gloucester.

Thanks for reading.