Wet it in tepid water, squeeze the water out gently, spin dry (only recommended if it has the ‘memory’ of wool) or roll in a towel. Then… take a deep breath…peg it on the clothes line. Not just the top edge but the lower edges too. Move the pegs and smooth out to accentuate the 'holes' from time to time.
Hours of work down the drain? Yet another cat blanket? Exhale. It works. And it’s quick. But if you are working with fibres other than wool, stretching, patting and pinning on a bed is safer.
Maybe you are the kind of person who would try it if others had not done it? I’m not. I was encouraged by by Liz Gemmell at a knitting workshop in late February at Grampians Texture - a series of weekend and whole week craft workshops in a beautiful setting. The 2011 Grampians Texture dates are here.
The focus of Liz's workshop was feather and fan. From a feather and fan fancier, I became a feather and fan fanatic. It’s such an easy pattern. And pegging it on the line turned my shawl from a non-descript looking garment into a graceful lace adornment.
It’s good to take a deep breath and leap into the unknown once in a while.
Gorgeous! But what does 'old shale' mean?
ReplyDeleteThanks,Parlance and that's an interesting question. The term Old Shale is most commonly used by knitters in the north of England and the Shetland Islands, where it is/was a popular pattern for shawls and baby layettes. I assume ‘Old’ in this sense means ‘traditional’ and the ‘Shale’ seems to be derived from the Old English 'sceill', meaning shell. This would make sense, since the pattern has a scalloped appearance. I’ve also seen an occasional reference to the pattern as Old Shell. There’s a school of thought that associates Old Shale with the waves breaking on the seashore, but I can’t find any literal origin of the word that would support that meaning.
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