My three little helpers

First, I would like to thank my three little helpers, (from the left) Elise, Synne and Mia, for helping me showing off my shawls.

Birch leaf shawl

In Nancy Bush's book ”Knitted laces of Estonia” there are many beautiful patterns of knitted lace shawl where the main motif is from the nature. The most common motifs are the lily of the valley and various types of leaf and twigs. One of my favourites is this triangular shawl where the main motif is a birch leaf. The shawl is very easy and fast to knit. I chose an off-white Italian mohair yarn for this shawl, which was the only lace weight yarn I found at my local yarn supplier. This shawl probably looks good in many colours. In Nancy Bush's book, the shawl is in a lovely soft beige colour.

Queen Sylvia's shawl

I absolutely love to knit Estonian lace shawls. In the book "Knitted laces of Estonia" Nancy Bush have collected many beautiful patterns. My favourite pattern in the book is the Queen Sylvia Shawl. This shawl was designed for the Swedish queen, Sylvia, and given to her when she visited Tallinn in 1992. The main motif in the shawl is the lily of the valley with butterfly stitches on top. The pattern is relatively easy to knit, but the knobs and butterfly stitches require some practice. If this is the first time knitting knobs, this is a fine shawl to start with, since the knobs only consist of five stitches. I knitted this shawl in a fine black Italian mohair yarn I found at my local yarn supplier. I plan to wear this shawl with my black Christmas dress.

The Mankell shawl

You may also find this lovely shawl in Nancy Bush's book "Knitted laces of Estonia". The pattern is relatively complex, and may be a bit tricky to knit. The main motif is the Lilly of the valley, with seven stitches in the knob. The shawl is absolutely lovely, and is suited for a light summers dress. It is knitted in a lace weight lamb wool yarn I found on a net shop called Purl Shoho. I buy most of my lace weight yarn from abroad, since the supply of such yarn is limited in Norwegian stores. I only used one skein for this shawl. Since the shawl is knitted on 3 mm needles, the thin and delicate yarn makes the shawl very light and lacy. This shawl is knitted for my daughter Elise (lower right picture).