This kit makes a most amazing shawlette. Designed by Nina Dayton, here we offer the pattern and beads and yarn to make a gloriously beaded piece. This one will burst forth like fire and shine. We offer here a different yarn and a different color than the originals made by Nina it will come together most beautifully.
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Nina is the amazing designer who brought us the Henry Street Shawl (and Shawlette) design. Queen Mab is a lovely beaded piece -- it glows!
For those who don't know who Queen Mab is, she was first mentioned by Shakespeare in his Romeo & Juliet as a miniature creature who drives her chariot and compels sleeping people to experience dreams of wish-fulfillment.
Here is how Nina describes this shawl:
With 500 seed beads that sparkle like moonbeams in mist this crescent shaped shawlette is reminiscent of the mantle that fairy Queen Mab might draw around herself as she flies through the night bestowing sweet dreams upon slumbering mortals.
“In bed asleep while they do dream things true
O, then I see Queen Mab hath been with you…
Her collars of the moonshine’s wat’ry beams…
Through lover’s brains and then they dream of love…”
-- Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet, Act I; Scene IV
And so Nina created a wondrous piece, reminiscent of faery-land and the beautiful dreams thereof. Requiring only 437 yards of fingering weight yarn and 500 size 6/0 beads, this is a really lovely shawlette. (The finished size is 15" deep x 60" wingspan.)
This kit will contain the hard copy of the pattern (with both charted and written directions) plus one skein of Ella Rae's Lace Merino, a lovely fingering weight yarn. Don't let the name confuse you -- this is definitely fingering weight! The yarn has a tight twist and is perfect for showing stitch work and holding beads. Each skein is 100% superwash merino with a generous 460 yards to its 100 gram skein.
The colorway on this page is Orange Fire and while it is considered one of their multy yarns, it is all in the same color family. Virtually a tone-on-tone in hues of fire -- there are fantastic variations of orange here --- a bit of tangerine, some pumpkin, carrot, tangelo and amber --- yum!
This one is very appealing indeed.
It is not a color nor a yarn that Nina used in her original but with a bit of imagination I am sure you can "see" it. The inset photo in the first picture and the one below that shows the yarn. The other photos are there to show you the design of the shawlette.
With each kit you will also get 500 size 6/0 beads to catch the light and glisten with moonbeams. There are quite a few color options for the beads -- we have some striking golden beads that will enhance and enrich this piece to the nth degree, and also some lovely orange ones that will blend in and give a far more subtle look. If you have a preference, let me know -- otherwise I will choose for you and include beads that strike me at the time. I promise they will look most lovely.
The beads are added using a very thin crochet hook, not included in the kit -- if you need help finding one, we carry them. Email me for directions as needed. You must also provide your own knitting needles -- Nina used size 5 (US) circulars, recommending at least 24" long.
