…Barahir the brother of Bregolas was in the fighting further westward, near to the Pass of Sirion. There King Finrod Felagund … was cut off from his people and surrounded with small company in the Fen of Serech; and he would have been slain or taken, but Barahir came up with the bravest of his men and rescued him, and made a wall of spears about him….

-- J.R.R. Tolkien, from the Silmarillion

The Spears of Barahir stole is knit from one long edge across the width, in either a deep U shape (large) or shallow V shape (small). This bending of the stole makes it easy to wrap around and keep on without the need of pins. Schematics in the pattern show the placement of each of the charts, and also gives a suggestion for how to block the piece to maximize the shape.

This is an intermediate or adventurous beginner pattern; the stitches themselves are not difficult, it is being able to work from multiple charts at the same time that is challenging.

Skills needed:

• switching between several charts in sequence across a row
• knit, purl, right/left/centered decreases, yo, adding beads (optional)

Materials needed:

• @700y (large) or @550y (small) fingering weight solid/tonal/semi-solid yarn
• 4mm needles (or preferred size for a good fabric) long enough to work @500 sts
• @800 (large) or @650 (small) beads suitable for fingering weight yarn (I used 6/0 beads)
• (optional) unique stitch marker to indicate start of right-side rows, 10 (6) stitch markers to indicate changes between charts

Gauge:
Gauge is not essential for this project; I like the fabric I get on 4mm needles using fingering weight yarn for lace shawls. Be aware that if you use considerably larger needles you will likely need more yarn; if you use considerably smaller needles you will likely end with a smaller overall piece.

The border stitch of this piece is a slightly altered Frost stitch created by Naomi Parkhurst. The inspiration for the overall shape of the shawl also came from a blog post by Naomi.