:: Summer 2016 
Advice
Use Lace Knitting Stitches to Design a Shawl
CyberFibres chose to knit with Sublime Lace Extra Fine Merino wool yarn. It comes in 25 gram balls of approximately 350 meters/383 yards. Five to six balls using US size 3 or UK size 10 (3.25 mm) straight knitting needles will make a rectangular shawl 16 inches in width and 5-5.75 feet in length. Sublime Lace is a 2-ply lace weight yarn. You can also experiment with thinner 1-ply cobweb weight yarn and the same (or smaller) size needles. CyberFibres selected bamboo needles to avoid the slipperiness of metal or fiberglass needles.
Your design may be a single lace knitting stitch with a simple border on each end, or an arrangement of multiple stitches. CyberFibres created a pattern with one central section – knitted first – flanked by three sections of different stitches arranged in identical sequence to the left and right of the central panel. This produced a balanced sampler effect with an edging stitch on each end of the rectangle.
Blocking the finished shawl is essential for lace knitting. This makes the rectangle even on all four edges and clearly shows each of the knitting stitched used in the project.