The Lunae Shawl Reveal

It’s the beginning of January and it is a gloomy and grey day. Perfect conditions to be at home at the computer to do photo editing and blog writing! I don’t think that my Lunae shawl, in whatever state, has made its appearance to the blog just yet. However, those of you that follow me on Instagram or Facebook have seen me knitting the beautiful shawl. I have finished it a little while back but haven’t had the chance yet to give it full credit here on the blog. So, it’s time for a Lunae shawl reveal!

Back to the Beginning

The Lunae shawl is designed by the lovely and very talented Natasja, also known as Moonstruck Knits. Her Ravelry store contains a lot of clever designs and she is known for her shawls that use the mosaic knitting technique. I had the opportunity to attend one of her workshops last year in Amsterdam where she very thoroughly explained this way of knitting. I was hooked.

Natasja kindly gifted us a pattern from her store and I chose the Lunae pattern. Next step: finding the yarn that I wanted to use.

The Yarn

The original pattern uses dark blue as one of the contrasting colours. For my shawl, I wanted to use a deep, warm red. Red is one of my favourite colours, but it can be quite overwhelming to use it as the main colour. This pattern is perfect for it though! My main colour had to be a kind of sand/beige/taupe hue and the second contrasting colour had to be a neutral one.

I don’t really remember how I came to Rosy Green Wool for my yarn of choice… I have some of it in my stash so I was already familiar with the brand. Rosy and Patrick pick their yarns and suppliers very consciously. The yarns carry the GOTS certificate which ensures that animals are treated well and so are the people that make the yarns. You can read more about it on their website.

For my Lunae shawl, I chose their Cheeky Merino Joy, a very soft 100% organic merino yarn. My main colour is Taupe (#114) and the contrasting colours are Ruby (#050) and Edelweiss (#065, undyed). All details can also be found on my Ravelry project page.

The Making

This shawl pattern contained a lot of new-to-me things with the stitch pattern of the main part being my first hurdle. I am always confused about M1L and M1R and there was a lot of fiddling with the needles and frustration at the beginning. I switched to Hiya Hiya needles (the sharp ones) and that made quite a difference! The sharp tip of these needles was just what I needed! Now the only challenge was to do the increases properly :)!

The construction of the shawl was a new thing for me as well. The shawl is basically knitted in two parts. The smaller centre part is knitted first and the wide, mosaic border is added to that by picking up stitches along the side. I was kind of terrified to start that part. But, amazingly, it wasn’t that hard at all. For sure, my stitch count was off (even though I did triple counting to check), but with a little bit of creativity solved that minor problem!

I am actually still amazed that I didn’t have any major issues while knitting this piece. No large parts needed to be frogged… phew! I did insert a lifeline before starting the main mosaic part of the border, but fortunately, I didn’t need it. That’s Murphy’s law I guess: if it’s there, you won’t need it, but if it isn’t there…

Lunae went with me on holiday to France, even though I had only a (comparably) small part left before finishing it. I’m glad I did take it, because after my little accident while visiting a church (resulting in a seriously sprained ankle) I had loads of time to finish it!

Even the backside looks stunning!

So, by the time we got home (and I was able to move again), blocking the shawl and making and attaching the approximately 40 tassels was the ‘only’ thing to do.

The Reveal

On a bright and sunny Sunday, we went to the forest to take some photos (which don’t show that I still couldn’t really walk properly!) Now, let’s reveal Lunae…

Thank you, Natasja for this gorgeous pattern! I love my Lunae a lot and making it was a joy. I’ve had a lot of fun doing the mosaic parts since it’s quite a fast way to do colour work knitting without the need to use multiple strands of yarn simultaneously. Perfect!

All details and a link to the pattern can be found on my Ravelry project page!