Elizabeth is top-down, triangular lace shawl with charming traditional Shetland stitch patterns and motifs, designed with a modern sensibility.

What lace knitter is not intrigued by beautiful Shetland shawls? I wanted to design a shawl that featured the beautiful and clever Shetland nature motifs but in a triangular shawl rather than the traditional square shape. I also wanted a shawl worked all in one piece rather than with the traditional method of mitering corners and knitting on edges. Last but not least, I wanted Elizabeth to be fun and interesting to knit, so I opted for a sampler style design where stitch patterns change often.

Elizabeth is offered as a chart-only pattern with large, easy-to-read charts and very detailed instructions on how to use them. Even knitters who have not previously used charts should find these user-friendly and simple to comprehend.

A great shawl to showcase your favorite subtly-variegated hand-dyed or tonal yarns, Elizabeth will also look stunning knitted in solid colors. While dimensions and yardage are provided for lace weight yarn, Elizabeth could effectively be worked in fingering weight as well. Elizabeth is offered in one generous size.

Since the nature of the design does not lend itself to size customization, if you would like a larger shawl, using fingering weight yarn worked on larger needles (about two sizes larger than the suggested needles above) will increase the wingspan up to 12” depending on individual tension, needle size and specific yarn weight. Detailed blocking instructions are included, as well as an additional instruction sheet for newer lace knitters called Lace Knitting Tips.

PLEASE NOTE: All of the shawls pictured were knitted with lace weight yarn. When using a heavier lace weight yarn on US 4 (3.5 mm) needles, you may anticipate using between 850-900 yards (777-823 m); when using a lighter lace weight yarn on US 3 needles, you may anticipate using between 800-850 yards (732-777 m). Substituting fingering weight will require considerably more yarn depending on needle size, so please make sure to have extra. Natural fibers are recommended for the best blocked results.

Elizabeth is also available as part of the Lace Triangle Collection: Ethereal Lace Shawls e-book.

Yardage: The deep reddish purple shawl pictured used 850 yards (777 m) lace weight yarn (Dragonfly Fibers Squishy Lace, 100% Merino, 870 yards/113 grams) on US #4 (3.5mm) needles.

The green shawl pictured used about 785 yards (718 m) of lace weight yarn (Black Sheep Dyeworks Silk/Merino Lace, 1,100 yards/100 grams) on US #3 (3.25mm) needles. The weight of this lovely yarn is very similar to Jaggerspun Zephyr Lace 2/18, which would also be a good choice for this pattern.