Knit this delicate, lacy shawl that brings a cold winter night to mind.

Note If you are considering making this shawl, but are just not sure if you want to commit to it yet, you might want to knit my Snowy, Snowy Night Scarf first. It contains many of the elements of the shawl and is a much smaller project.

This shawl is round on the outside and becomes hexagonal shaped (six-sided) on the inside as you create a giant snowflake. The motifs include a Christmas tree edging, fir trees, snowflakes falling, leafless trees, diamond-shaped windows framing burning candles, and a lacy snowflake in the center. When the pattern is knitted with fine mohair/silk laceweight yarn, the halo from the mohair fiber lends a soft coziness to this elegant accessory. But you can use any laceweight or fingering yarn and the effect is stunning.

This is a great pattern for learning:

• how to combine lace and cable stitches
• to block lace knitting
• knitting a shawl from the outside in
• dyeing with Kool-Aid

It is worked from the outside edge to the center. The long Christmas Tree edging is created first working back and forth until the motif has been repeated 54 times. Then stitches are picked up from the edge of the edging, joined in the round, and then the shawl is knitted toward the center--each round becoming shorter and shorter.

The resulting shawl is approximately 54 inches in diameter, depending on your gauge.

Difficulty: Advanced—some experience with lace knitting is highly recommended.

Yarn: 200 grams of mohair/silk lace weight yarn (like Elann’s Silken Kydd or Knitpicks Aloft Super Kid Mohair)