Welcome to the Shetland Pi Shawl KAL! My name is Elaine Harvey and what makes me worthy of being the hostess for this KAL? I volunteered, that's usually all it takes. :) This is my first Blog hosted KAL, so constructive suggestions and comments are welcome. If all goes well, I'm happy to do more. The main discussion will occur over on the Yahoo list that I Hostess at EZasPi . It's a great group if you are looking for a chatty place to hang out and ask questions or just enjoy some 'similarly afflicted' company. (thanks to Risa for that terminology, it's a classic, right up there with 'fibergasmic') I'll chronicle my progress on my shawl here on this blog and you can send me your links, comments, suggestions and questions.
So why a Shetland Pi Shawl? Wasn't it done already in Gathering of Lace? Well, yes it was in the Shetland Tea Shawl, but we plan to design our own version. The spirit of Elizabeth Zimmerman and then Meg Swansen is and always has been to use a frame and then paint your own picture. We are using the Pi Shawl frame and painting our own Shetland lace picture inside. I do plan to also use guidance from the class over on Traditionalknitting, another Yahoo group, being offered by Liz Lovick. For those who aren't familiar with Liz, she's a fantastic Shetland Islander, lace knitter and designer and great lady. If you are new to Shetland lace patterns and methods, you might want to join that list also to access the classes, which are generously free. I do request, however, that you obtain the basic pattern from one of the published sources. It can be found in:
I will also post an Excel File authored by CrazyFiberLady that not only helps you keep tract of your rows (and pattern repeats if you are using the original Pi Pattern) but includes a cool repeat calculator for those of us designing as we go along. um...I'll do that as soon as I figure out how... I did it! woohoo! I'm so proud of me. :) Look on the sidebar for Pi Shawl Worksheet. You will either need to have Excel to view the worksheet or download a free viewer from http://tinyurl.com/5jdj7 (thanks to Risa for that link too. Gotta love a pet geek. ;) )
The Cast On day for this KAL is officially Saturday May 14, 2005. If you don't cast on that day, your stitches will drop, your needles will splinter and your yarn will fray...um...a little over the edge? OK, you can join whenever, but don't say I didn't warn you.
Knit On! ...note to self: I need to learn to say that in Gaelic...
A KAL (Knit Along) making a Pi Shawl including Shetland Lace.
