Thursday 10 March 2011

The crown prince shawl


This shawl was given to crown prince Gustav-Adolf of Sweden when he visited Estonia in 1936. The pattern is a copy of a picture of the shawl, designed and knitted by Mrs. Valdeman. This is a lovely shawl, with a simple but beautiful checker pattern in the middle, and some large stars along the inner border. I found the pattern in Nancy Bushe’s book "Knitted Laces of Estonia", which I absolutely love.


The shawl is knitted in a fine merino wool yarn, called "Fine Merino", which I found in an American web shop called "Purl Soho".

The shawl is 95x95 cm and weighs 42 g. In retrospect, I think the shawl would have looked nicer if I had used a thicker yarn. Both because it would have been larger, fallen more heavily, and the nubs would had looked better. These ultra thin yarns is best suited for patterns without nubs.

The shawl has been finished almost a year now. It has been lying on my corner table, waiting for me to block it out. When I finally decided to do the blocking, I got a shock. There had been a little mouse gnawing two holes in my shawl. Luckily, I was able to mend the holes, so that they do not run. If you look closely, it is possible to spot the mending, but my hope is that if I do not tell anyone, they will not notice.

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