Under Dutch Skies

My Mom’s birthday is in January and I’m usually kind of late getting her present to her.  This year was no exception.  I started knitting this shawl before her birthday, but I didn’t finish it until April and didn’t give it to her until we visited in June.  She doesn’t seem to mind. 🙂

This is Echo Flower Shawl, a free pattern from Jenny Johnen, available here on Ravelry.  I didn’t make any modifications at all – knit as the pattern was written.  This has been on my to-do list forever and I can’t think of a better reason to knit it than for my mom’s birthday.

The yarn is Madelinetosh (no surprise there), lace weight (100% merino wool) in color Posy.

The shawl is knit from the small square in the center top back, and increases into a triangle.  The main flower section is pretty quick to knit and looks more complicated than it really is.  I just love this pattern and the lovely flower design!

The lower section, with all the nupps (the little bumps or bobbles) was slow going.  I’m not a nupp expert.  I have to use a very small crochet hook on the purl side to work them off, which is a slow method but it works well for me.  It’s the only way I can keep from dropping loops.

I really enjoyed knitting this shawl and would definitely make it again.  I think next time I’ll make it a little bit bigger.  The pattern says to make 13 flower repeats before starting the border.  Next time I’ll do 16.  I used 66% of the skein of yarn for this shawl and I think I can still manage 16 repeats with 1 full skein.  Have some Tart color that is just waiting to become this shawl.

You can check out my project page here on Ravelry.