Shetland Lace Scarves

Now, I'm not a big scarf user, which makes sense considering where I live. (No, the photo above isn't a South Carolina view, it's the bay in Lerwick, Shetland. We have old tabby ovens around here, but no old stone buildings that I know of.) It does get cold down here in SC although even in January and February it can heat up to 60 degrees if it's sunny by afternoon. Occasionally I will toss a hand knit scarf around my neck, but it comes off quickly.

Now, first some thoughts on terminology. According to me, and please leave a correcting comment if you have other thoughts:

1) a scarf is a relatively narrow woven fabric or knitted item that is long enough to wind around the neck, however, some shorter triangular knitted items (that likewise go about the shoulders) are termed scarves. If you are a Boy Scout, these might be woven fabric.

2) a shawl is triangular, and relatively large.

3) a wrap or stole is rectangular and long enough to wrap around shoulders and upper body.

I do love me some lace, as you can see from the last post. I don't knit lace scarves lately and don't plan to... However, in Shetland last year I encountered some lovely ones. On Joyce's tour, we had a morning workshop in Shetland lace with two lovely women, and we all started a cobweb lace scarf. Below is a rather poor photo of a sampler scarf that's probably a stole in Wendy terminology that I chose not to crop so as not to loose any detail.

Mine has gone untouched since we left, I wonder if anyone has finished theirs? Here's a great photo of my friend Nancy showing our instructors the wonders of Ravelry on her iphone...

I purchased several in this traditional cockleshell pattern, one black and one white. Can't find the black one to photo but here's the white one. It's cobweb weight, and DID I MENTION THESE ARE ALL GARTER LACE?? (Very hard to do, at least for me).

Here's the shabby chic view on back of the rusty chair with falling zinneas in the background:

When in Scotland, I saw a black scarf that an artist had cleverly applied a thin felt backing to in a light color; I thought that was a lovely way to highlight the lace and use two techniques; when I find mine and then learn to felt, that will be a future project.

These tend to be knit in Jamieson and Smith yarn, either 2 ply or laceweight or cobweb. If you are interested in knitting some Shetland lace, J & S has patterns and kits at their website.