This is my 5th shawl in the 12 shawls in 2012 challenge, and the first one to use more than 500 yards of yarn. It measures about 40” on each square side.

Yarn usage: I used a tad more than 3 skeins: 1/3 of the yarn got me all the way to the beginning of the 2nd lace trellis section, 1/3 got me to the beginning of the lace border, and the other third was used in the border.

The yarn was quite old - probably more than 20 years, and I bought it at an estate sale of someone who traveled a lot in South America and the labels were all in Spanish, so I’m guessing it was from before alpaca was widely available in the U.S. Some moth damage which was easily fixed by spit-splicing, and when I washed it a lot of dirt came out.

In the second lace trellis section, I’m pretty sure the directions should be “Work rows 1-4 of First Lace Trellis section 8 times; on the 9th repeat, work rows 1-3. You will have 103 stitches between markers and are ready to work a wrong side row.” I believe you could continue the trellis section more for a larger shawl; every two repeats of the 4 rows of the trellis section would add up to another repeat of the motif in the lace border. You need to have a multiple of 8+1 between the markers at the beginning of the lace border section.

I have a bunch of this alpaca yarn from an estate sale and decided I will never use it in a sweater. I needed a semi-mindless shawl and I wanted a change from Lady MacBeth.