
Even though the date on the calendar indicates spring has arrived for most in the United States, we still have snow showers in the Rockies. I’ve wanted to do nothing more than knit lace lately. I suppose it is my sub-concious longing for warmer weather.
April was a busy shawl knitting month for me as I had signed up for two mystery shawl knitalongs with new clues released each week.
April 29th is the International Day of Dance and in celebration here is Danse Macabre, a MKAL that started on 1st April.
The name of this shawl comes from the music written in 1874 by the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns. Danse Macabre immediately lets your imagination wander to dancing skeletons in graveyards; what better yarn to pair it with than Dye for Yarn Tussah Silk Lace, many perfectly named for such a shawl!

I can’t even begin to express how much I love this shawl. This photo was taken with my phone and doesn’t begin to show it’s beauty. Danse Macabre was my first BooKnits design and will not be my last. The yarn is DyeForYou Tussah Silk in the color way ‘Bloodthirsty’ and it shimmers in the light. There were close to 1000 garnet silver-lined beads placed throughout the design but most heavily on the border. They also shimmer in the light, simply beautiful.
Romi’s Mystery Shawl 2016 used two colors of fingering weight yarn so it is a heavier shawl. I used Shalimar’s Breathless which is 75% Merino, 15% Cashmere, 10% Silk. It was a lovely yarn and obviously very soft.

The design feature I most liked in this shawl was the twisted stitch border in the lighter color yarn. It was slow and somewhat tedious to knit but oh-so-worth-the-effort!

This triangular shawl is simply a stunning design but I’m not surprised because the designer is brilliant. 
Oh yes, the lace bug has definitely bitten me. I have just cast on MORTICIA by BooKnits and I am anxiously awaiting June 1 so I can cast on her ETERNITY pattern with others in the BooKnits group on Ravelry. Come join us! Summer is almost here, or so they tell me.