Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Dragone Details

In answer to a few requests for more info about the Heere Be Dragone shawl:

As far as I know, at this point it is only available from the designer herself, Sharon Winsauer at Aurora Alpacas. The pattern is not yet up on their website, but you can write to her -- web2@aurora-alpacas.com -- and ask to order it. She gives very prompt and courteous service. No affiliation, yada yada.

The pattern itself appears to be well written and the charts are clear, although I think I will have to enlarge them to actually use them. There are 10 pages of body chart, and two pages of border chart. The background in the pattern appears to be a simple mesh pattern, but the Dragone hisself involves some manipulation on both wrong and right side rows and uses a variety of twisted stitches as well as your more usual lace stitches. The edging is knitted on after the main portion is completed.

My attention was first drawn to this shawl when I saw it on Rae's blog, Extravayarnza, where she chronicles her knitting of it. The pattern calls for two 100 gram skeins of Alpaca with a Twist, 70% alpaca/30% silk, 875 yards/skein. Rae advised me that it actually only takes about 1 and 1/4 skeins, which leads me to believe that one hank of Helen's Laces should do it, as long as I don't screw it up too badly, but I think it would be *totally amazing* in the alpaca/silk.

In the sock knitting category, it appears that we really are taking over the world one knitter at a time ;-)

19 people had something to say:

HPNY KNITS said...

you ARE a brave soul! may the force be with ya'!
I'll be following the conquering of the dragon tales.
hooray for converting the new sockies!

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous!!! I am not into dragons, but this one is gorgeous!!!
Don't you fear that the variagatedness (yay, I invented a new word :)) of the HL's will take away from the design?

Cheers Eva

Michelle said...

I think blogger ate my comment yesterday. LOVE the shawl. Can't wait to see you conquer it!

And where is everyone finding all of these swaps? I never see them until the sign ups are done and the questionnaires pop up in peoples posts.

sheep#100 said...

Good luck on conquering the dragon, St George!

Anonymous said...

Wow, 10 pages of charts? I'm stunned, but it looks like a really cool design, and I can't wait to see you tackle it. And congrats on your Amazing Lace win!

Anonymous said...

I have faith in you - it's going to be amazing :o)

Dorothy said...

That shawl just blew my pithy little mind. Love it!

Paula said...

Now that is cool!!!!
Can't wait to see the dragon come to life!

Spinny Bunt said...

That is the coolest shawl pattern! Congrats on the Amazing Lace prize.

Anonymous said...

love the dragon shawl.. and congrats on your prize

ax174 said...

One word: Dragone-along!

Thanks for the info - am waiting for my pattern to arrive in the mail. Yay!

limedragon :-: Harriet said...

I'm definitely getting that shawl pattern.

Congrats on the AL grand prize! : )

Nora said...

Amazing shawl - a work of art. Don't worry - you won't screw it BUT are ya sure about the Lorna's Laces? Imagine... all that work and suddenly... POOLING! Just sayin'.

LaurieM said...

I wonder how the various color depths are achieved and how big the finished shawl is.

Alisha said...

That shawl is beautiful. My gosh.

Ruth said...

Wow - what an amazing shawl - I will definitely have to bookmark that. I love Celtic dragons.

Anonymous said...

I just love this pattern and I have sent two emails out now to try to get a hold of Sharon to see about getting the pattern and have had no luck at all :(
flowoxsgarden@hotmail.com

Anonymous said...

That dragon is AMAZING!

I love seeing a lace/shawl pattern like that with an actual, not-too-pixelated image. I'm pretty new to lace knitting but some of the stick-figures I see on shawls make me dream of fully-fleshed-out dragons like this one.

Very cool.

Anonymous said...

Wow! Amazing pattern: can't wait 2 see you bring it to life.