Catch Up #3

This time it’s shawls.

I’ve finished the 3rd Fine Donegal Shawl. I liked knitting with the yarn but 3 shawls meant over 3km of knitting the same thing. I'm glad I can have a bit of variety back in my knitting. I blogged about it last here. Ravelry project page.

The other shawl that I’ve recently finished is one I started last February and didn’t pick up again until December. It’s quite an intensive pattern – lace and twisted stitches on both sides. This make a beautifully intricate texture but not good for talking or watching TV. I think this might be the reason it's not been on the top of my to do list. The pattern is Rendevouz by Lily Go. The yarn was pure heaven - Gretchen Heavy Lace by Posh Yarn.

The only thing that I’d wished I’d done differently was make the next size up so I could have used the yarn up.

Wonderful Wonderwool

Sorry for the alliterative title, couldn't resist.

With an offhand comment to Mr, "That it's Wonderwool Wales this weekend and wouldn't it be nice to go." His response being, "Why can't we?". So we did. Bit bonkers. 10 hours of driving in total but it was lovely weather and we had a good day.

I was relatively restrained with my purchases. Here's what I bought:

Rachel Coopey's new book, Coopknits Socks, and some sock yarn. The bronze one is Fyberspates Vivacious 4ply and fivemoons Luna 4ply 50g hanks in Denim and Pumpkin and a little mini one too.

The scotch eggs were fab!

I can finally show you a finished project, which just happens to be a Coopknits pattern! 

John Huston in Posh Yarn Megan 4ply, just in time for a birthday present.

Bluefaced Weekend

The Bluefaced Weekend at Mickle Trafford was fantastic. Lots of lovely knitters and lots and lots of scrummy yarn; even with just a few stalls I found myself bamboozled with choice yet again. 

Bought waaay too much but boy was it fun.

I bought 5 skeins just from Posh yarn

Catherine - Colourway - Sent to Coventry - Heavy Laceweight - 100% Organic Merino

Olivia Lace - Orphan - 100% Mulberry Silk

Megan - Orphan - Sock Weight - 100% Superwash BFL

2 Skeins Gretchen 2ply - House On The Mountain - 55% superwash BFL, 45% silk. Provisionally I'm thinking of making an Oregon Coast Cardigan

Now the rest of the yarn!

Babylonglegs Radiance Sock - 100% Pure Wool - to make a Marin

And two lots from easyknits; I could have bought lots from here. The colours are just so bright and saturated! Right up my street. Finally settled on just these two.

Deeply Wicked - Electric Dreams - 75% Superwash Merino, 25% Nylon 

Deeply Wicked - Midnight Forrage (sic) - 100% Superwash Merino

Restocked my stash which has gone down quite a bit recently. Believe it or not; I've knitted the majority of the yarn I bought at Woolfest.

All the stalls were fantastic; wished I'd been able to support all of them (just not enough pennies - but I did give it a good go!). Though Nicsknots is making me some of her lovely bags in the near future.

I'd definitely go again and the cakes were very scrummy btw and Mr. says the coffee was fantastic too!

Fountain of Beads

Perpignan Aeolian

Finished my Aeolian this week & I'm thrilled with it. This is the first lace shawl I've made that I have kept. I thought the green was a beautiful colour and could be dressed up or down. Quite like the idea of wearing it with jeans.


It looks so fine and the Posh Yarn Diana has blocked beautifully. I've mentioned on my project page on Ravelry that the beading though lovely is a bit too heavy for me in this shawl. I've done the yucca sections as recommended then I've changed the rest to lighten it a bit.

The beads are fantastic and I've bought them from Spellbound Beads, which was recommended to me by a friend. Must say I don't think I've had anything delivered that quickly before. I've used them twice now and each time they've dropped through the letterbox the next morning.

Got a few parties coming up so hopefully I'll get to wear my new shawl.

Golden Waterfall Shawl

I'm very lucky to have a wonderful Mother-in-Law who I get on with extremely well. I always share all the crafty things I do and I've always had at the back of my mind to make her something absolutely gorgeous. I was going to make her a handmade quilt but it generally takes several months and I've just not had the time.

So now I'm into the swing of things with the knitting I thought I'd make her something special. The only problem is she doesn't like wool! However, I found the perfect yarn. Her favourite colour is gold; shoes, handbags, clothes, jewellry - definitely the colour to go for. I bought a skein of Fyberspates Infinity Lace in gold - 3000m in all. It's 100% silk so no wool involved. It has a wonderful sheen to it too. Only downside was winding 3000m onto balls by hand but it's done now. I am using the yarn doubled because it is so thin and there's so much of it anyway.

Next issue was what to knit; initially I had settle on Fiddlesticks Peacock Feather Shawl but when I came to start I then realised that there was no download so it would have to be sent from Canada at a slightly higher cost than I thought plus I couldn't wait that long ( I have about 0% patience).

So researching away on Ravelry I found Mystic Waters by Anna Dalvi which looked to be an interesting pattern. The only fly in the ointment was I couldn't figure out which size I wanted to do and the details didn't really specify how the two different sizes of this pattern were made. Whether I had to decide from the outset or not.

I decided to buy the pattern anyway and it turns out that both the small and large size are the same up until a certain point and then for the small size it changes to the small size patterns with only 13 rows to do. Which is great because I don't have to decide on the size until I get to that point.

The other issue was I wanted to include a few beads to the pattern but nothing was specified in the pattern so I've added them in (details on my project page). Using Spellbound beads again but this time they are clear with a lustre to them and they really catch the light and add just that bit of sparkle that a I wanted.

Below is the shawl in progess:

Laminaria

Laminaria

After seeing the multitude of Laminarias on Ravelry, especially Clarabelle's beautiful Silver Laminaria; I thought I had better have a go.

I have recently made my first purchase from Posh Yarn and must say I'm very impressed with the wool and the beautiful rainbow of colours that it comes in. I bought a Diana in a lovely spring green and Arabella in Jetset which is what I have made the Laminaria. Not sure I'm overly keen on winding the wool onto balls (took a few hours); persuaded my husband to make me a homemade swift. Been to the local hardware store today to get the supplies.



Anyway, finished the laminaria this week and it's blocked and done - ready for a Christmas present can you believe. I love how it has turned out; ended up doing 6 star patterns and 14 blossom patterns which is a lot more than most seem to have done. Arabella is a cobweb weight yarn so think that is probably to do with it but it has made the shawl very fine and airy.