Three Lace Projects

This past month has seen three lace projects - one finished and two started.  The finished one is a baby blanket for little Lukas, who was born Thursday.  I had mailed the blanket to his Mom just in time, as she was two weeks early.  It's a wool and silk blend, very soft, and washable too. I've had this yarn for a very long time so it was nice to knit something really special with it.

I've started a lacy shawl from the book by Anna Dalvi called "Ancient Egypt in Lace and Color".  I spotted a reference to this book, and I had to have it, since we had just gotten back from Egypt and a pattern from this book would be a perfect souvenir. I chose "Malachite" because it didn't look too difficult and also because it has a wide crescent shape which I think fits better around the shoulders than a straight triangle. The author notes that Malachite is the name of the Egyptian Paradise "land of the blessed dead", and the photo in the book is in that beautiful green color, but I substituted a "heavenly" blue with sparkles which I bought at the Tolland Sheep Festival last year. It's called Estrellita, a hand-painted superwash merino with some silk, which I am using doubled. I've only frogged back four times so far (I am not good with lace, but I'm determined!)

The other lace project is from one of those one-a-day calendars - it's called the Dream Shawl.  I'm using Ornaghi Filati merino mix yarn in navy blue.  It's much easier to knit than the Malachite shawl, as you only have to knit the lace pattern every fourth row - the rest is just stockinette.