This shawl started with the best of intentions as my Knitting Olympics 2008 project.  Could I really knit Laminaria in laceweight in 18 days?  Sure, I thought.  I’d take it with me everywhere, and there should be no problem.  If I hadn’t modified the pattern, I think I would have made it.

I had so much of this yarn, and wanted to use as much of it as possible, that I continually decided to add repeats to make the shawl larger.  I added repeats to the blossom chart, but I should have added more.  Even after adding additional border rows, I still ended up with a lot of leftover yarn.  Because of all of this, it ended up a huge size.  It was actually difficult to photograph, it was so big.  The finished, post-blocking size is about 84 inches wide by 40 inches long.

I made it into the border pattern during the Olympics.  When they were over, but the shawl wasn’t done, I put it aside, feeling a bit defeated.  It sat for months.  I really wanted to finish it up before the beginning of the new year (I don’t really like carry-over projects), so in mid-December, I picked it up again.  I managed to finish the knitting in late December, but didn’t get blocked until the new year.  It finished blocking about two weeks ago, but I didn’t get around to photographing it until now. After blocking, it sat in the coldest room of the house, which is also a bit damp.  The shawl seems to have unblocked itself a bit while it sat.  It’s not nearly as open or crisp as it was when it was first blocked.

One of the major changes I made to the pattern was that I added an additonal repeat of the border chart to continue to use up more yarn.  I’m not sold on the way the border came out.  It was very hard to block because both the base of the shapes as well as the open area seemed to want to be the point at the edge fo the shawl.  In the end, I opted for the shape instead of the open area.

Pattern:  Laminaria
Designer: Elizabeth Freeman
Source: Knitty, Spring 2008
Yarn: Skaska Deisgns Superlamb (1315 yards/100g)
Color:  Midnight
Needles:  US5, 3.75mm

Started:  August 8, 2008
Completed:  December 29, 2008

Pattern modifications:

• Knit 10 repeats of the blossom chart to increase the shawl size and use more yarn.
• Modified pattern to add a repeat of both border patterns to use more of the yarn.  I didn’t really write down what I did, and winged it most of the way through.
• Because of the modifications, the points were blocked at the base of the shape in the shawl edging, instead of the large open area.

Yarn oveview:

I liked this yarn. It was easy to work with and has an amazing color depth.  It’s hard to capture in photographs, but the yarn actually has small flecks of a green and other colors in it.  It’s not just a flat blue color.  I’ve heard that this is actually repackaged Jaggerspun Superlamb, but having not used the Jaggerspun, I cannot compare the two.