Silver leaves

This is something I’ve been meaning to show you for a while, since I’m rather proud of it.

My beautiful silver leaf shrug, and my first project made without a pattern.

As far as self-designed knits go this was a pretty basic one. I’m going to share a secret with you, something only the shrug-knitter knows: shrugs are dead easy. They’re pretty, and look like they took some skilled construction, but the fact of the matter is that to make one, all you have to do is knit a big rectangle, and sew a couple of small seams. Simple, no?

I discovered this when I decided that a sweet knitted shrug was just what I needed to get me through summer. These directions gave me some basic info about shrug dimensions, and I used the lace chart from this scarf pattern (pdf). Add two balls of the delectable Sublime cashmere merino silk dk, a few long car trips, and voilà—silver leaf shrug.

The long sides of the rectangle are the cast on and cast off edges. I’ve blocked these into a scalloped shape, which I think is pretty and opens up the lace better. You can see these form the top and bottom edges of the shrug, and the short sides of the rectangle form the arm holes.

I really love this leaf lace pattern and it works really well in this yarn. And the best thing about the ultra-simple construction of this shrug is that it’s so easy to store—who can’t fold a rectangle neatly? I am a bit worried that the scalloped edges are a little loose, though. If they stretch with use I guess I’ll try to tighten them a little—can anyone tell me what’s the best/easiest way to do this?

Anyway, for the now the shrug fits beautifully and looks lovely too. And it’s boosted my confidence to try more sans-pattern knits!

Tags: grey, lace, leaf, leaves, shrug, silver