The Blautopf is a karst spring in Southern Germany, widely known for its peculiar blue water. A beautiful mermaid named Lau is said to have lived therein, who on rare occasions showed herself above the water with a wreath of leaves on her braided hair.
She suffered from an unexplicable sadness that kept her in solitude for a long time. Only when the mermaid befriended the people of the nearby village and began to spend time in the company of humans, she eventually learned to laugh. The spell was broken!
Lau left the Blautopf, but the generous farewell gifts she gave to her friends continued forever to bring them luck and prosperity.

Die schöne Lau is a long, narrow crescent shawl that starts with a garter-tab cast-on at the centre of the top edge, then increases at the beginning and end of each row. Textured stripes reminiscent of ripples on the water interrupt the stocking stitch background of the shawl body. The lace border is knit on sideways at the end.

Skills required: Knitting and purling, working lace stitches (right- and left-leaning single decreases, yarn overs, centred double decreases and double increases), and working cables over 4 stitches. The pattern of the lace border is worked on both sides of the work.
Full written instructions as well as an additional chart for the leaf lace are included.

Yarn requirements: The sample shawl was worked in two colours of fingering-weight yarn. Most test knitters were able to complete the project with 100 g of each colour, but if your gauge is slightly looser than recommended, you should allow for approximately 425 m (465 yards) of each colour.

Thank you to Jo Torr for tech editing and to my wonderful test knitters for their work and feedback!