I just finished a piece of knitting which will be going with me to Australia as a gift for a dear friend whom I have not seen in more than ten years.

I started with a pattern which is a variant of Evelyn Clark’s lovely “Swallowtail Shawl,” which is a triangular piece. Clark’s shawl was first published in Interweave Knits, Fall 2006. It was such a popular pattern (as of today according to the Ravelry count, it has been made 12,000 times), that Susan of TheRaineySisters was inspired to create a crescent version. Click here to read the posts about the process of turning the original triangle into a crescent. You will also find a pdf of the pattern available for a free download!

But as I knitted away with a gorgeous gradiant dyed by Brooke of the Painted Tiger, I decided that I did not want the distinct bands of patterns: budding lace, lily of the valley nupps and the pointed lace border. I wanted something after the budding lace that transitioned smoothly into a pointed lacey ending.

After some searching and checking repeat count, I settled on melding the budding lace to the leaves from Katrin Vorbeck’s pattern “Spring Leaves.” And she based her pattern on  “Gail (aka Nightsongs)” by Jane Araujo.

The piece came out very well. Better in fact than I was anticipating. It took most of a 490 yard skein of sock weight yarn. I used sizes 4, 5, and 6 knitting needles. You can find more pictures if you click here.

Now I am thinking about turning this into a pattern to offer on Ravelry but I need to email everyone listed in this post to see if they will allow me to use bits and pieces of their patterns to create a new one.

Wish me luck!