Picking a favorite aspect of Shetland knitting is like picking which of your five senses you’d most like to keep, but I am awfully fond of the lace edgings—which are, as I learned from Sharon Miller in Heirloom Knitting, referred to in the local vocabulary of shawl knitting as the “laces.” I decided do a scarf that was nothing but edging, just a long a strip of airy prettiness inspired by several Shetland patterns. The name comes from a half-remembered old poem celebrating the charms of a wholly fictitious shepherdess. When off duty, perhaps she’d have worn something like this.

GAUGE
Lace pattern motif = 6 in (15.25 cm) wide, blocked