>> They were called ring shawls as well because they could be easily pulled through an average woman's wedding ring. I have not seen the term ring shawl applied to other lace shawl types, though certainly the Orenburg shawls could be called ring shawls. <<
Oh. I was under the impression that there were Shetland shawls, and ring shawls, both knit in the Shetland Islands, using Shetland wool taken from the neck of the sheep. The ring shawls were very special, and usually reserved as a wedding gift. Ring shawls are called that because they are fine enough to pass through a ring, or wedding ring. Of course, the size of the ring would be a factor in this <g>. Ring shawls are not unique to the Shetland Islands, but Shetland shawls were/are. What little reading I've done on Shetland shawls, says the island of Unst produced the best Shetland shawls. Shetland shawls could take up to a year to finish, from spinning to knitting the finished product. Based on the pictures I've seen of the frames used to block the shawls, the frames were huge. At least double bed size. Margaret Stove has a pattern in her book, for ring shawl. She used a 2 ply yarn spun from Merino. >> <<Aren't we always being told that gauge is something that varies from knitter to knitter? Which is the reason we're told to do a test swatch?>> Exactly, which is why "12 stitches per inch" doesn't convey a lot of information. How dense is the fabric? << Um, so if we're talking lace, I would have thought a fine yarn would be used, and since it's lace, it wouldn't be a dense fabric. It still leaves a lot to be interpreted though. >> But it wouldn't be the same weight as the lace yarn used for ring shawls unless I'm an extraordinarily good guesser. << Well, to paraphrase the good Doctor on Star Trek--one of your guesses would be much more accurate than some people's computations. :) wrnk d2 To stop mail temporarily mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: set nomail To restore send: set mail
