i'm like a bird

as promised, here is the second in the set of lovely lace shawl/scarves that were made with one single skein of yarn. it is the swallowtail by lace knitting master evelyn clark and it is delightful (note: the pdf pattern is free! and you can get it here). three different sections of lace combine to make a shoulderette that is challenging to knit but well worth it. the photos barely begin to do the design justice.

this is actually a second attempt at the pattern. the first one was made at the beginning of the summer and the start of this lace/triangle/shawl/scarf craze. at the time it was so daunting that there was no other choice than to rip it out and put it away for a while. but practice makes (close enough to) perfect and when half of this beautiful blue-green ball of yarn was left-over from the lavalette, well...you know the rest...

below is a detail of the most challenging section, know to knitters as the dreaded nupps. they are basically like little knots or puffs of yarn. the construction is a bit difficult to explain. but it is one of those things that is simple in theory and tricky in execution. some people abandon the project all together because of them. there was definitely a moment where i wondered if they were really worth the effort. they made the knitting very slow going when all i wanted to do was sprint to the finish. but in the end, they made the finished product even more interesting with the added texture they provided.

so there you have it! one skein of yarn, two very different and very lovely little lacy pieces.