On pins and needles

A few more pics of the shawl while blocking.

You can just about make out some of the patterns in it. I had to fold it in half though; otherwise it wouldn't have fit onto my blocking pad. (Memo to self: get a bigger one, once I've moved to a bigger place) Lace needs to be blocked till it squeaks and you're afraid it will tear.

The main body of the shawl is on a stocking stitch ground, so it has a front and a backside. The border is on a garter stitch ground, made it faster to knit.

It isn't an exact triangle; it has a slight 'V'-shape along the top. That is often seen in shawls from the northern islands, be it Shetlands, Orkneys, Færøers or Iceland. The shape rests better on the shoulders than a straight-edged triangle. Also in some instances the arms were long enough to be crossed over the chest and the tied behind the back to keep the shawl in place.

A bit about the yarn I used, that mix of silk and linen. At first glance it sounds a weird mixture, but it actually makes sense looking at it with my engineer's eyes.

Both silk and linen are long-staple fibres, silk even being a monofilament that can reach several thousand metres in length. Wool and cotton on the other hand are short-staple fibres, with fibre lengths that top out at 20-30cm.

Silk and wool are animal-derived protein fibres, similar to hair. Cotton and linen are plant-derived carbohydrate fibres, similar to wood. That difference in chemistry gives them a big difference in behavior.

Light – Silk and wool are subject to sunrot, use them in thin fabrics as curtains and they will be light-degraded in about a year. Linen and cotton last longer.

Water – Silk and wool can contain far more water than cotton and linen without feeling wet. On the other hand they weaken while wet, whereas cotton and especially linen get stronger.

Temperature – Silk and wool isolate body heat. Linen and cotton spread body heat. I was told by a colleague at school that old winter bed sheets here used to be woven with a wool weft on a linen warp. The wool would keep you warm, while the linen would spread out your body heat all through the bed.

So, not that curious a mix after all. It also is very hard wearing as both fibres, especially the linen, are very tough. People tend to concentrate on silk's luxury status and forget that it is a very strong fibre.

However, as both linen and silk are far more time and labour consuming to produce in contrast to wool and cotton, they are used far less in daily items. Silk of course gets a lot of attention as a luxury item, but not for daily use. A shame really.

Work starts again for me tomorrow. A lot of preparatory bureaucracy, but that needs to be done too.