I first knit the Upstairs shawl back in August, 2010. I wear it frequently, but more often as a scarf than as a shawl because it doesn’t wrap far enough around to stay closed when I want it to. (I know, I could pin it. But I don’t.) It’s also a little narrow, and I always meant to reblock it but I never did. So instead I decided to spend 60 hours knitting another one. In black, of course.

This time I used two skeins of Malabrigo Lace, which gave me an extra hundred yards or so of yarn to work with. I cast on the same number of stitches as before, but got four more rows of the pattern repeat. I also used blocking wires to block it, which has turned out very well — I managed to block it to the suggested 22″ width this time, and 66″ long.

The Malabrigo seems drapier than the handpaintedyarn.com lace-weight yarn I used the first time. I don’t know if this is due to better blocking, or if the Malabrigo is softer (it feels softer). Maybe now that I have blocking wires I’ll finally reblock the first one.