Delmare is a top-down garter and lace shawl which features a colorful wavy border composed of a variation of the traditional lace pattern known as Old Shale (aka Old Shell). Delmare alternates colorful garter eyelet stripes with squishy wide garter bands on the shawl body, which then flow into a stockinette-based Old Shale border worked with wide waves of contrasting colors. Since the Old Shale lace pattern originated in the Shetland Islands, I named the shawl Delmare, which means “of the sea.”

Delmare is a relaxing and intuitive knit, suitable for both newbie lace knitters as well as more experienced knitters looking for a social or TV knit. I designed it to be a good stash buster for your fingering weight/sock yarn, since in most cases, if you grab a full skein of the main color and some partial skeins of the other 2, you are good to go. (See below.) Fingering weight is recommended for this design. There are multiple ways to customize the size; full instructions are provided, including how to recalculate stitch counts. The pattern includes helpful video links as well as detailed blocking instructions

The Delmare pattern includes both charts and full written out instructions for those of you who prefer not to use charts.

When selecting yarn for Delmare, please note that the yardage range for each of the three colors used for this shawl is as follows:

Color A: 375-425 yards (343-389 m) IMPORTANT! If you choose a heavier-weight fingering yarn for Color A (for example, 400-425 yards (366-389 m) per 4+ ounces/113+ grams), a single skein may not be quite enough, while one skein of a lighter-weight fingering yarn (425 or more yards per 3.5 ounces/100 grams), should be sufficient for most knitters. So if you opt for a heavier fingering weight, you may wish to play it safe and make a slightly smaller size--approx. 82” (208 cm) wingspan, and that’s still pretty big; detailed directions for this option is included in the pattern on page 3.

Color B: 260-300 yards (238-274 m)

Color C: 140-155 yards (128-142 m)

Please note that yardage estimates are based upon test knitter data and careful calculations but will vary based upon on individual knitting style, needle size and yarn weight.