In memory of bellybuttonknits, the Queen of Bling,
who loved lace and beads and designed the sparkliest of socks.
Her fun and witty banter in the SockMadness group will be fondly remembered.

In ‘The Magic Flute’ (‘Die Zauberflöte’, 1791), opera by Wolfgang A. Mozart, the ‘Queen of the Night’ is sometimes referred to by the name Astrifiammante, an Italian translation of the German adjective ‘sternflammende’ (‘star-blazing’) in the original libretto.
The Queen of the Night and Sarastro, priest of the light, represent the two halves that always must exist in order to have a balanced whole. The Day cannot exist without the Night.
By order of the Queen, her agents save the life of the story’s hero Tamino, inspire in him a love for Pamina, the Queen’s daughter, and also give him the magic flute, without which he would not survive the trials later in the opera. Therefore the Queen of the Night, though an antagonist to Sarastro, is not an allegory of evil but with her actions helps to bring about the happy ending of the story.

The patterns in this shawl are from the beautiful Estonian lace book ‘the Haapsalu shawl’ by Siiri Reiman.
The main pattern (lace B) is called ‘Maailma ilusaim sallikiri’ which translates to ‘the most beautiful shawl on earth pattern’
- just the right pattern for any queen!

Here is a Danish translation of the pattern (translated with my permission)