7/28/17 ERRATA in row 43, within the repeat, the 10th stitch should be a k3tog, (not a knit).

This pattern contains both charts and written instructions for the lace border. It contains notes on technique, links to tutorials and a glossary of stitches. Modifications for a smaller shawlette begin on page 14.

The Blossoms section of the shawl is “knitted lace” and has increases and decreases on both the right and wrong sides, The Leaves section is “lace knitting”, with has increases and decreases on only the knitted side. The Crescent is knitted in stockinette. The shawl becomes progressively simpler to knit with each section.

This shawl is knitted in one piece from the bottom up and the lace motif narrows considerably. When the lace border is complete, the stockinette crescent is created using short rows. The short rows decrease faster and create a more tightly curved crescent than most other similarly shaped shawls. This allows the shawl to wrap neatly and drape without having ends to tuck in. The firm bind-off is essential to creating the curve.

This pattern provides enough support, explanation and resources that an advanced beginner or intermediate knitter could make this and be incredibly proud of the accomplishment.

I began envisioning this shawl over 2 years ago, shortly after I designed Heliotaxis. I love the graceful way that Wisteria hangs and the exquisite shades of purple that change in value as the blossoms open.

I started working on the lace for this pattern then and got the leaves the way I wanted them by modifying existing leaf lace patterns. The racemes, the clusters of blossoms, eluded me. I couldn’t find any existing lace pattern that I could modify to capture their ethereal grace.

In the intervening time I designed several other lace shawls and scarves and became more adept at designing with lace patterns and also increased my library of stitch patterns, so I decided to try again. It was closer but not close enough to what I envisioned. So I decided to try to design the lace from scratch. I made innumerable swatches and the blossoms started to emerge. It was time to get serious about finding yarn.

I had bought some yarn earlier but swatching proved that the colors just didn’t really work; I wanted to capture that gradual color shift from the deeper purple of the unopened buds to the soft lavender of the unfurled blossoms, and the dappled effect of created by the sunlight. I searched everywhere without success.

Then, thank you Ravelry, I saw in someone’s stash, a ColorShift Yarn Gradated Yarn Set http://www.etsy.com/shop/colorshiftyarn. I contacted Erica, who I have dubbed my Fairy YarnMother, who dyes exquisitely gradated sets of yarn, and offers custom dyeing, about helping me find the colors of my dreams.

I had hoped for help with the yarn but what I found was even better, a generous collaborator. Several months of discussion by email and over 3 dozen knitted swatches later, we were done. She had created, for this shawl, two color sets, Wisteria, for the blossoms and Verdigris for the leaves and with helpful feedback from her I had tweaked the lace design until I couldn’t find any way to improve it further.

There were still two hurdles to overcome; how to eliminate any stripiness between values and how to deal with a lot of ends when changing colors. I developed a “leap-frogging” arrangement that blends the colors, seamlessly creating a lovely dappled effect and we developed a modified Russian Join that eliminates having lots of ends to weave in.

I hope you derive as much pleasure from this shawl as I do.
The color in the first 2 pictures is the most accurate.