Hi!
I'm just knitting one of the shawls that you've published, the one with snowflakes?
It's a very easy and lovely pattern, and I just have one question.
In the pattern it says to bind off when you have 20 motifs, counting the center motif. Is that 20 horizontal or vertical? I know I can make it as big as I want to, but I find it hard to estimate how big lace will be after it's blocket. The size you have on the picture looks good to me.

Thank you!
Tina

That would be vertical. If you're using the same yarn I used, you'll find that it blocks quite easily. I didn't block mine to the fullest extent possible, and I suspect I could've squeezed another inch in length and width.

One thing you could try is holding the shawl and stretching out the point until you can feel the yarn starting to resist the tug. That'll give you an idea how long it'll be when you block it.

Thanks!
Now I know I have a few more rows to make.
Cheers!
Tina

I found your journal via the shawl patterns, so thought I'd just let you know on this post how much I like them! I'm just starting to play around with lace knitting and will probably try one of your shawls soon. (i.e., as soon as I free up some needles from other projects and find some nice yarn to knit a shawl out of :-) I found the section at the end on designing a shawl pattern especially interesting; I'd like to try that.

I'm glad you're interested. Let me know if you have any problems or questions, and I'd be happy to give you help.

One thing to note on designing your own shawl is that you may need to knit a test one with three to four repeats and then wash and block it. That'll tell you, for example, if your pattern results in too large empty areas on the sides of your lace, if your needle choice works, or if the lace warps the sides of your triangle. (It's not too obvious, but the Lake shawl has a very long point thanks to the pattern, and the Woods one is very wide, but short thanks to the pattern.) If you're not too picky about getting a perfect triangle, you don't need to worry about that.

Another cool thing is a suggestion I read about threading a smooth yarn along the sides of your shawl. After washing, you can use this yarn to help pull your sides into smooth lines. This is a lot nicer than having to pin and repin everything.