A while ago I fell in love with the complicated lace patterns of Herbert Niebling, a prolific German designer. I ordered the pattern I most wanted to knit, Lyra, and waited to find the perfect yarn. Shortly thereafter I saw a Plucky Knitter club colorway called Spectacle.
The marriage of the pattern and the colorway was perfect and made me think of the character Lyra Belacqua from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials.
I managed to get my hands on enough skeins to make the shawl and in February of this year I cast on. Knitting Lyra was interesting because I had to learn to read German pattern charts, which use different charting conventions than American ones do. The first bit was a little hairy while I got used to using them, but worked up quickly.
After the first 30 or so rounds, however, the rows got very long. Towards the end I was spending several hours a night and only getting through a few rows at a time. But it was worth it. I finally bound off on Tuesday night and thanks to a snow day, I blocked Lyra at lunch today.
Dec 21, 2012 @ 14:28:51
WHOA. I am super impressed! I would never even attempt such a difficult pattern. It turned out absolutely gorgeous!