Old Friends

My mum and I are often quite different in our approach to knitting. When she loves a pattern she will quite happily make multiple versions in different colours; I've lost count of the number of times she's made Tender, which looks amazing on her, and she always has a Maia Shawl on the go in her handbag. I've often told her that I would go mad knitting the same thing over and over again. With a 25-page Ravelry queue, making multiples of a project feels like a waste of valuable knitting hours, even if I really loved it the first time.

When I was searching on Ravelry for a new project last night, however, I realised that this wasn't entirely true. There are now a huge number of triangular shawl patterns on Ravelry - I've contributed to their number myself - and many of them are beautiful. Quite a few of them are in my queue. But as many as there are and as beautiful as they are, I've yet to find any that look as lovely to me as three of the earliest patterns I tried when I was a new lace knitter.

I'm sure nostalgia plays a large part in this. The Swallowtail Shawl was one of the first shawls I ever knit, my introduction to the world of lace knitting that I have loved ever since. I knit my first one in a few days in December '08 then a second one in January '09. No pictures here as the photos I took were absolutely awful, but anyone curious can have a look at my Ravelry page! A couple of years later I knit another, larger version which is now one of my favourite shawls:

Later came the Aeolian Shawl, which I still think is one of the most beautiful shawl patterns on Ravelry and introduced me to beaded lace. I've made this twice, the first time in a very fine silver silk yarn, the second in a warm alpaca blend.

Photo by Adam Stanley

Finally, there is the lovely Haruni which I made in a gorgeous bright blue silk (these three shawl pattern also seem to have cemented my silk addiction!)

Photo by Adam Stanley

In my opinion, these three patterns have such beautiful proportions and flow so perfectly from lace pattern to lace pattern that they deserve to be made multiple times; every time I wear them they remind me of the feeling of pride I had after knitting my first lace and the wonder I felt in being able to create something that lovely with my hands.

I think the time may have come for another Haruni...

What about you? Do you have any 'old friend' patterns that you make over and over again? Is there a lace triangular shawl that you think should join these three? Let me know! 

J