Lichen

I’ve finished the 2nd of the Fine Donegal shawls – that I started here.

This is the first one I made. I’ve got to make another one in this colourway, now that I’ve finished the pale green one.

The subtlety of the colours in this yarn are beautiful. This the 03 Soft Grey colourway but because of all the subtle flecks of tweed, it does look more like a soft green colour.

Pow!

When these gorgeous new colours of Rico Soft Merino Aran came into A Good Yarn - well I may have got slightly obsessed. It’s not the first time I’ve used this yarn, nor the last. There’s a beautiful array of colours, it’s supersoft, pure merino, good yardage and a decent price too.

I’ve got tons of knitting to do but they were beautiful and squishy and warm and well….

Last week, we had a lot of driving to do (he had a very nice birthday at Alton Towers Water Park) and Mr was happy to drive so over a few days I managed to get this lovely, squishy and colourful shawl finished. Can you tell I like it?

The pattern is the Betsey Shawl by Amy Miller. Here's my Ravelry project page.

It’s a very simple shawl and in my infinite wisdom, I thought I didn’t need stitch markers. Well, turns out I did.

I was fine until I started the stripes and just assumed the double decreases lined up on the middle stitch. They don’t. This meant I had an extra stitch on one edge and one less on the other. Once I realised what I had done (took awhile to figure that out), I just kept it as it was and did one less increase on one side and one less decrease on the other. You can’t tell.

Anyway, 4 days later, I’ve got a lovely shawl for winter. I love how the stripes lie when it’s on. The colours really sing.

I was playing about editing the photos and just love the effect of the one below. It looks like it’s been drawn with coloured pencils.

 

Fine Donegal

This lovely shawl has just come off my needles. The yarn is a new one from Debbie Bliss – Fine Donegal. The colour is Heather 10. I am absolutely in love with this yarn – I enjoyed knitting every bit of it. Ravelry Project Page

I was in too much of a rush to start the shawl to take a photograph of the balls but they are lovely and big. I want to use the word dumpling to describe them for some reason. Fine Donegal is a 4ply weight yarn and it comes in 100g “dumplings”. It’s a single ply yarn and very reminiscent of Rowan Fine Tweed; however, it has 5% cashmere content which seems to have increased the strength of the yarn. The rest of the yarn is 95% wool. It feels soft and with nice body to it.

The little flecks of tweed in the yarn are really beautiful. The shade I used was a heathery purple but with flecks of bright pink, green, blue etc. They are a similar tone to the main colour so they give the yarn a lovely depth of colour.

The pattern is from the book that goes with the yarn – Fine Donegal. The pattern is rather uninspiringly called “Shawl with lace edging” but it’s a lovely pattern. The edging is worked separately from the main body (which was great TV knitting), then sewn on. The sewing was really easy as there is the same number of rows for the edging and the shawl, so I didn’t even need to pin.

It blocked nicely too. It has an even softer handle now it’s blocked.

It is quite a large shawl, which I imagine will make it lovely in cold weather.

Pop

I'm not sure why but this is a project that has languished about for quite some time. Looking at the project page on Ravelry, I started this all the way back in July! The pattern is Pop Spots by Juju Vail.

I whizzed through the spot part quite quickly and really enjoyed it, but the knitted on edge put me off a bit. I think it was because it's such a large shawl.

It's quite a combination of yarn. The background is a strand of Rowan Kidsilk Haze and Debbie Bliss Rialto Lace and the spot yarn is local indie dyed yarn by Chroma Yarns - Chroma Merino Silk Blend. The border is two strands of the Rialto Lace.

It's really quite a snuggly shawl, mixing the Kidsilk Haze with the Rialto Lace makes a lovely fabric.

Archer's Paradox

I can finally show you my finished Follow Your Arrow shawl - pattern by Ysolda. For those that haven't taken part, it's a mystery knitalong. There has been a clue released each week for 5 weeks. Each clue has two choices. I've particularly enjoyed having a choice because there was bound to be a clue that I like more.

My Ravelry Project page.

I love garter stitch, so whenever that was part of the clue, I tended to choose that one.

My final choices were ABBAB. I used two different Eden Cottage Yarns for the shawl, which I bought from Woolfest, see this post.

I've really enjoyed this knitalong and think the finished design is lovely. 

Zuzu and Narwhal

Back to the knitting...

The photo of this has sat on my computer for awhile, been a bit too busy to blog recently.

 The pattern is Zuzu's Petals by Carina Spencer, which I made with some of my handspun, blogged originally here. Handspun Zuzu project page.

The yarn is faux cashmere, 18 w.p.i, 268m/100g. So from fibre...

to yarn...

To Zuzu's Petals.

It's a lovely idea, a small shawlette shape but worked as a cowl so it's not going to fall off. Another plus, is it doesn't take a lot of yarn.

I have a few projects on the go at the moment. I've been wanting some very warm mittens for awhile now. I thought some Fair Isle ones with a lining would do the job. Another handspun yarn project, I blogged about the yarn on the same post as the faux cashmere.

The pattern is Narwhal Mittens by Ysolda Teague. Handspun Narwhals project page.

I've completed one full mitten and the outer mitten for the other. They are sitting unknitted at the moment because other projects are taking priority; though if they sit much longer, then they will miss the winter entirely!

I made plastic templates to go inside the mitten and the thumb for blocking. I'm glad I did as it made the lining fit snuggly inside. I just have to find the time now to finish the other.

I have a Follow Your Arrow shawl by Ysolda Teague on the needles at the moment too. The final clue arrived this morning, so once it's finished I can show you that too.

Myrtle Leaf Lace Shawl

Finished the shawl and I am so pleased with it. The Heirloom Merino Lace blocked beautifully and the shawl actually feels like air; and it's so soft.

I have plenty of time to spare before my sister-in-law's birthday too. It was quite and easy knit too though slightly problematic when I dropped a stitch as the lace pattern is on both the right side and the wrong side of the knitting which made it tricky to pick up lost stitches. The border was a lot easier to do than I thought it would be.

Loved the wool so much I think I'll make something else. Heirloom Knitting seem to have introduced a few more colours this week in their range. I was thinking of buying the violet and making the South Seas Stole by Laura Patterson. The pattern seems to change throughout so thought it could be a quite interesting make.