Beaded Moss Green Shawl - Design LF106

I bought a few lots of hand-spun lace weight wool off a lady on Ebay whose late grandmother was a crofter in the Scottish Highlands and it is she who spun this yarn.  This particular yarn was spun and dyed in 1953.  Its pure Shetland Wool and I would take a guess by the colour that it has been dyed with natural plant dyes that can be made from lichens, twigs, leaves, berries, vegetables etc.

I have chosen an old Danish/Finnish lace pattern and bought some beads that work well with the colour of the yarn.

I started knitting this shawl on 20th October but was only able to work on this occasionally and for no more than about 2 hours a day.  I added beaded to some parts of the design, which added much needed weight to the shawl as well as highlighting some of the design.  I finally finished making this shawl on 16th March 2011 and there are 3700 size 8 Toho beads in colour 1209 marbled opaque avocado pink on the shawl, with each bead being added to the stitches individually so that they do not move.

It grew during the soaking and blocking process.  It was approx 25 inch deep x 50 inch across and grew to 31 inch deep and 61 inch across.