The Old Shale Shawl is a Faroese style shawl — my favourite shawl shape — but worked top-down, finishing with the Shetland lace pattern old shale. I made my sample out of naturally dyed fingering weight yarn by Danish G-uld, on their New Zealand lambswool base. The pattern uses relatively large needles which gives the shawl a light fabric and lets you finish a large shawl in no time.

I hope you will enjoy this pattern, and if you need any help, please do not hesitate to contact me in my Ravelry group ‘Skeindeer Knits’. It’s the best place for swift support.

Yarn
G-uld New Zealandsk Lammeuld (100% wool, 450 m / 492 yds, 100 g).
Main colour: Dark blue (colourway: Dark Indigo — 620 m / 680 yds).
Contrasts: Medium blue, light blue, dark green, medium green and light green (colourway: Guldklumper Blågrøn 31-36 — 75 m / 85 yds each).

Can be substituted with any (light) fingering weight yarn. The gauge is best suited for non-superwash sheep wool. For other fibres I recommend using heavier yarn weights.

Gauge
18 sts x 24 rows 10 cm / 4” in garter st.

Shawl dimensions
Wingspan: 170 cm / 67”.
Full width: 214 cm / 84 1/4”.
Shawl depth: 64 cm / 25 1/4”.

Needles & notions
Gauge-size needles for working garter stitch lace flat, and 4 stitch markers.

The sample was made using 5 mm (US 8) needles.

Construction
This shawl is shaped like a traditional Faroese shawl. It combines the shaping of a triangle shawl with that of a half-circle shawl. Meanwhile the centre spine is shaped more gradually. This is what gives the shawl its generous wingspan without getting too deep, so you can drape it over your shoulders, or wear it around your neck.

Contrary to a traditional Faroese shawl, this shawl is worked top-down, finishing with an ‘old shale’ lace border.