New York City’s Chrysler Building is one of the most recognizable icons of its time due to the quintessential Art Deco architecture. The building’s stunning features served as an inspiration for the Obsidian shawl.

The building’s upper tier with its unique arches inspired me to create a lace pattern that reflects these curves. I added silver-lined crystal beads throughout the design; these not only mimic the reflective quality of the building’s steel-plated shapes, but are also in keeping with the era’s love of all things ornate and decorative (2000 8/0 3.0mm seed beads).

This shawl is worked in one piece starting with the lace border along the bottom edge; it is shaped into a crescent with easy stockinette short rows (no wraps). While the lace pattern may seem intricate, it uses only basic stitches and the reverse rows are simply purled.

The Obsidian pattern is now available as Ravelry download.

This pattern was originally published as part of The Woolen Rabbit Yarn Club in August 2013.

8 Sept 2013 - the original club installment pdf has an error in the chart: Row 41, stitch #3 (counting from the right edge) should be k2tog, not k.

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