French printed Barège shawls (two yards square and named after a village in the Pyrenees) were very popular. It is possible that Miss Lambert’s Barège pattern had come from France but just as likely that she was trying to emulate a current fashion as knitting.¹
I’ve been knitting late each evening, working on Miss Lambert’s Spider’s-web shawl in the half hexagon size from Victorian Lace Today.
I added this book to my knitting library after reading Grumperina’s preview. I was sure I’d knit the Myrtle Leaf Shawl as my first lace project from the book, but I couldn’t stop looking at the Barège pattern by Miss Lambert. Shown in three different sizes (full hexagon, half hexagon and fichu) and three different yarns, I couldn’t resist the beauty of this stitch. I tend to overlook things like, say, knitting 117 rows of simple ray shaping to actually get to the pattern. I’ll finish Chart B tonight and should be ready to start knitting the Barège pattern tomorrow evening using size 5.5 mm needles. (The half hexagon pattern requires multiple needles sizes, going up a needle size for each chart.) The yarn is silk merino hand painted lace from Yarnahoy in color Chocolate Cinnamon.
Cross-posted at the Victorian Lace Today kal.
1 Victorian Lace Today, pg. 45