Lisbon is a beautiful circular shawl. My pattern photo shows it with a shawl pin. I got this one from Shaune Bazner and they are an incredibly beautiful and affordable way to harness a shawl. Try wearing it with one piece of the edge folded into a collar, as here. This probably shows off the shawl to best advantage, plus makes you look like a styling genius. It can also be folded and worn almost like a triangular shawl. Again, use the shawl pin to keep it as you like it, although you will be surprised how the shaping of the shawl itself works to keep it in place. You can scrunch up one side of it and pin it into a cowl-shape, or wrap it around your neck.
The shawl is based on a placemat pattern. I expanded the pattern to make it repeat appropriately to get to shawl size, and needle sizes change as you work the outer repeats to get the ruffled, open trumpet shape, of the azalea bloom for which the stitch pattern is named. The stitch pattern is an easy-to-follow/memorize 16-stitch repeat and after the beginning rows, it is simply repeated in an increasing number of multiples as stitches are added.
My sample is knit in yak lace-weight yarn, which is only available in the brown. 1oz (28 grams) provides 200 yards, 20 wpi or US Fine #1, No. 1 – 3 needles, 8 stitches per inch. I think almost any lace weight yarn will work in this pattern and I picture it in my mind in colors of Azaleas. Can’t you picture it worn over a bridal gown in the white of the photo azalea?
Azalea photos on this website. Thanks to Pender Nursery for permission to use!
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