When Claire from Mollie & Claire asked if anyone fancied doing a shawl KAL back in March, I jumped at the chance.

I had long admired each one of her ten versions of the Lace Leaf shawl pattern by Mary Henderson (£3-00 on Ravelry), so this was a great chance to bite the bullet and crack on with it. Does anyone else find that working this way helps you to get focused?

A group was set up on Ravelry so if you want to look at everyone’s progress so far, hop over here and be nosy!

I chose a luxury yarn of 70% mohair/30% silk (just because I could!) which, whilst expensive at around £18-00 per 50g, was affordable because it only needed a single skein to complete the entire shawl on 4.5mm circular needles.

Designed by the legendary Kaffe Fassett, Rowan Kidsilk Haze Stripe in the ‘Circus’ colourway promised to knit up like this on the website….

….but after I was some way in actually looked like this!

To say I was disappointed would be an understatement but, as progress continued, the glorious pink which lured me in the beginning began to creep in.

I frogged it back to the beginning twice before mastering the pattern – not an easy task with mohair as it welds itself strand to strand immediately.

The pattern is an eight row repeating one and I found it a real pleasure to knit, always impatient to see the next band of colour emerge.

I suppose I knitted for a couple of hours most nights over the course of two weeks, then I wove the ends in and blocked it, leaving it for twenty-four hours before it was bone dry and ready to wear.

And finally – TADAH!

I used a matching shade in plain pink for the scalloped border as I wanted pink to be the main colour.

You get more of a sense of the stripes in this photo of the shawl laid over the back of a sofa.

The stitch pattern is so pretty that I might make another one in a plain colour to show it off more.

Look how sheer and lacy it is – you can see right through it when held up against a window!

Although it is warm and cosy around the neck, it is the lightest thing I have ever worn and weighs in at a mere 50g!

It’s going to be perfect to throw around my shoulders on those balmy Summer evenings when we stay outside until after the sun goes down.

The colours remind me of rhubarb and custard….

Yep – it’s gonna be a favourite, that’s for sure!