After Sunset was the September 2012 pattern contribution to the Shakespeare in Lace club by Wooly Wonka Fibers. It is now available in wide release.

This shawl takes inspiration from Sonnet 73 by William Shakespeare, a poem which conveys both the beauty and the melancholy of autumn. The lace motifs here are reminiscent of boughs full of leaves, but still sparse and simple. Sweep into fall – or any season of lace – with this gorgeous, generously sized triangular shawl. Shown in Nimue Sock from Wooly Wonka Fibers, this is perfect for your favourite fingering weight wool or wool/silk blend.

• Sonnet 73 That time of year thou mayst in me behold / When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang / Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, / Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. / In me thou see’st the twilight of such day / As after sunset fadeth in the west; / Which by and by black night doth take away, / Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest. / In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire, / That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, / As the death-bed, whereon it must expire, / Consum’d with that which it was nourish’d by. / This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong, / To love that well, which thou must leave ere long. / *

MATERIALS
• Nimue Sock from Willy Wonka Fibers 50/50 silk/merino, 435 yds/100g skein, 2 skeins (Shown in colour ‘Pomegranate’)
• 4.5mm/US 7 needle, 24”/60cm circular for working flat
• Stitch markers
• Tapestry needle
• Waste yarn for placing lifelines if desired

GAUGE
• 18 sts and 32 rows over 5 ins of Chart 1 pattern, on 4.5mm needles.

SKILLS
To complete this pattern knitters will be required to:
• Work basic lace stitches (yarnovers and single decreases)
• Follow a charted pattern
• Work a knitted-on edging
• Use lifelines as desired to preserve progress

SIZE
Completed shawl measures 72 ins wide along top edge, and 36 ins long (down centre of triangle).
Size is best altered by changing needle size.

This is a generously sized shawl. Knitters who tend to work “loosely”, or who desire a smaller finished shawl, are recommended to use a needle 1-2 sizes smaller than indicated.