The Scarf Post... AND Super Shipping Sale

Here it is... Twisted Minuet Lace Pattern Scarf: A Dissection. Hmmm. That makes it sound a bit gruesome. It's not. Really.

***Scalpels and probes aside, here is a quick plug for my last sale of the year. FREE PRIORITY SHIPPING on EVERYTHING in my Etsy shop. That means an average of 2-3 day delivery and a value of around $5.... Ends 12/21- Take advantage NOW for delivery for Christmas!!!***

And another WMASS Treasury can be found HERE!

And onward.
I haven't created any lace patterns from scratch although I've been knitting lace for a while, so I decided to use some of my favorite resources for ideas and build from there. These 2 books are wonderful old friends... (And would also make great presents for your knitting buddies)
1. James Norbury's Traditional Knitting Patterns
2. Nancy Bush's Knitted Lace of Estonia

My yarn was a yummy worsted weight wool/baby alpaca/silk blend from Valley Yarns - just down the road, incidentally. This is their "Northfield Blend". I was looking for something fairly substantial (ie not ALL lace), and easy to memorize. If you've ever knit a complicated pattern scarf where you constantly have to refer back to the pattern, you know what I mean. I found two patterns that I liked and commenced to scribbling, combining and knitting:

At this point I liked the width of the scarf and stitch texture, but the separate lace edge plus pattern look wasn't doing it for me. I really liked the lace edge by itself, and if it could be spiced up a bit... There was a great "twist" stitch in the main body pattern that I incorporated into the lace edge. Basically like a cable over two stitches. With that in place I frogged and started over.
Everything was going along swimmingly, but the edges were getting very curly. Apparently the "twist" was taking itself quite literally. Before I knit several feet of curly scarf I decided to make sure blocking would take care of the issue.
Voila!
Lovely non-curly scarf. Now all that remained to do was knit... and knit... and knit. 78 inches later... (ok, so I like long scarves. I mean, what's the point if you can't wrap them around your neck?) Final Blocking!!

Who knew creating a lowly scarf required so many steps? But see the previous post for why it is all worth it. :o)

Here is the great part- do you want to knit this scarf? The pattern repeats every 4 rows, which means it is super easy to memorize and a GREAT pattern for someone who has never knit with lace before. Just leave a comment saying that you want the pattern along with the email you want it sent to and I will send you a pdf! In the next few days I will get myself organized enough to put up a permanent sidebar link...

Cheers!