Bad shawl karma

During Edinburgh Yarn Festival I knitted this brown shawl. It soon became one of my favourites, pretty and wearable as it was. The pattern is Spring Festival, by Jo Kelly. 

So I brought it with me to Shetland Wool Week, where I also casted on a different shawl, in a Wensleydale wool from John Arbon. If I'm not mistaken, the yarn was a special batch that's not part of their usual yarns. Anyway, the yarn is soft and lovely to work with, a bit fluffy and shiny, like mohair. 

I enjoyed the knitting - the pattern is Velvet Rose Shawl by Helen Stewart, aka Curioushandmade.

I loved my new shawl, even more as I mislaid the brwn shawl somewhere in Lerwick. At the moment, the new shawl also has an unknown location, but I'm hoping it will show up again. Luckily I have another skein of the yarn, but I'm not feeling like casting on another shawl just yet. 

S for summer and shawls *3*

I call this shawl "Norsk sommer", which means Norwegian summer. It is inpired by the colours of summer in Norway. Originally I made it as a baby blanket, but as it was growing I saw that it would make a lovely shawl when folded double. 

I have used yarn from my stash, except for a couple of green balls that I bought to add more variety to the greens. It is all 2ply fingering yarn, Rauma Finullgarn, Sjølingstadgarn, J&S 2ply jumper weight and probably some other as well. 

The shawl (or blanket) is worked from the centre out, following the same recipe as the "Hurramegrundt" baby blanket that I made last spring. 

I am working on the Norwegian version of the pattern, so if you're interested in test knitting (and knows Norwegian), please let me know. 

S for summer and shawls *2*

I bought this lovely red yarn at Edinburgh Yarn Festival.  It's a Swedish yarn that I hadn't seen before. Extraordinarily red, soft and woolly. The link is for the Swedish site. I bought the yarn from an English based shop run by a couple, I believe she is Swedish and he is British. I bought two skeins, planning for a shawl - every woman needs a red shawl, doesn't she?

The skein in the photo is the darker - dyed on grey yarn. There was only one skein left of that, so I got one brighter skein dyed on white too. Then I had to figure out how to combine the two.

I didn't use a pattern for this shawl. I started with one stitch and worked a triangle, as I learnt from Gudrun Johnstons Aestlight pattern.

I knitted until I almost ran out of the bright red colour, then cast off the triangle. I picked up the yarn over loops on the sides and worked a feather and fan pattern, based on Kate Davies' Northmavine Hap pattern from her book, Colours of Shetland. When I was happy with the border lenght, I cast off. 

A perfect shawl for a chilly summer evening in Norway. 

S for summer and shawls *1*

I first så this shawl on the Knitting Amigas podcast. It's called Golden Sand and is designed by Joji Locatelli, and is made for the charity Sight is Life working in Congo DR, a country that I actually visited back in 1988. I liked the shawl and the project, and when the pattern was published just before my summer holiday, I decided it would be perfect holiday knitting, lots of garter stitch, and a little lace. 

The pattern is written for one colour, I used two. The yarn is a sock yarn from Shibui Knits, in two shades of purple. Ravelry project page here.

The shawl pattern can be bought as a single pattern, or as part of an e-book. There is a Ravelry group for the project. 

I had just enough yarn left from my two skeins to make tassels!

I almost can't wait for autumn!

Photo album from Edinburgh - page 3 - knitting

My marlisle hat
started in Sweaterspotter's class
on the Thursday of EYF

Spring Festival shawl
blocking in the window of our room in Edinburgh

My Next year in Lerwick cardigan
got a style award
when passing by Stephen &Penelope's booth.

At Susan Crawford's Vintage Shetland Project talk.

Trying on the unfinished hat walking home from
the corn exchange on a sunny spring afternoon

Coffee and knitting break

Holiday shawl knitting #2

I was able to finish a 2nd shawl during the holidays. This is the pattern 

Roma shawl by Kirsten Kapur - finished at Christmas, as you can see.

I have made it once before. I love the contrast between the lace and the garter stitch stripes. 

Details on Ravelry.

I wrote in the last post that I don't knit shawls. Obviously, that is not entirely true, when I look at my Ravelry page, I find that I've actually make four of Kirsten Kapur's shawls before. Her patterns are very well written, and many (the ones I have chosen among others) do not have very complicated lace. 

Holiday shawl knitting

As you might have noticed, I don't knit many shawls. 

And I don't knit socks. But still I tend to buy sock yarn....

So, this Christmas holiday, since we've been travelling, 

I brought sock yarn, long circulars and three shawl patterns. 

First out was Pebble Beach Shawlette by Curioushandmade. 

I have been listening to her podcast for a while, 

almost since the beginning last year, I believe,

 but hadn't knit any of her patterns yet. 

It was about time. (Do check out her podcast, if you haven't already!)

The pattern was easy to follow, easy to memorize 

(I don't like complicatede lace) 

and I loved the percentage system, 

that told med how far I had come at every point 

(every 5%, to be exact).

Still, my visual brain would have liked a little chart too. 

When on holiday, you can block your shawl between two closet doors.

And you can knit everywhere!

Details on Ravelry. 

And I did finish in time for Christmas.

What happened to the Mystery shawl?

I was looking forward to Westknit's Mystery Shawl in September. 

I eagerly cast on the first clue, 

and enjoyed knitting the holes and the stripes. 

Then another project caught my interest. 

When I went back to the shawl, I had already seen all the clues. 

I didn't care for the shape, and I was unsure about my third colour. 

So I just picked up sts at the broad end of the long triangle, 

and worked stripes, decreasing every third stripe 

till there were jus a few stitches left. 

And here it is! I love the colours, and I love that it's so long. 

It can be doubled, and then wrapped twice around the neck.

It's soft and warm.

The yarn is Pickles Merino Tweed.

Already a favourite!

Sock yarn tunic - a 2 year work in progress

I promised myself to finish a few projects before starting Colorcraving, Stephen West's mystery shawl. I have finished a pink shawl, a toddler's cowl, and last, but definitely not the least, this sock yarn tunic that I started in May 2011. 

The neckline and the raglan shaping is from a sweater pattern, Elphaba.

The two first flower patterns are from Pinneguri's Latvian Garden Blanket. 

The third flower pattern is form my Blomekrans Vest.

The lace at the bottom is from Kirsten Kapurs Cladonia Shawl.

Here I am, wearing the tunic and knitting the first clue of the Mystery Shawl!

Pretty in pink

Ta dah, one UFO less!

Pattern: Aestlight Shawl by Gudrun Johnston
Needles: US 6 - 4.0 mm
Yarn: Handdyed Ístex Loðband Einband / Icelandic Laceweight (gift from Knitting Iceland after they published my Toasty, Twisty, Tweedy cowl)
When: Started April 2012, finished September 2013
Modifications; When I picked this shawl up again after a year or so, I had almost finished the Bird's Eye Lace border. And I was to lazy to figure out once again how to do it, so I decided it was enough. I also was too lazy to do the original edging. which is really nice, btw, so I did a few rows of garter stitch, and then did a picot cast off.

Another mystery

I have joined Westknit's September Mystery Shawl!

I have heard so much about his wonderful patterns and KALs, but I have never tried any of them. In September I will! In the meantime I'm trying to finish as many UFOs as I can....

I'm so proud of my Water Melon Shawl

I finished my shawl in time, that is, within the month of June, to participate in the drawing in the KAL thread on Ravelry. I'm so happy about the result - can't stop admiring and photograping it. 

Pattern is Germinate, aka TTLmysteryshawl 2013

You can see lot's of beautful versions in the Ravelry thread. There are som many gorgeous colour combos.

My yarn was, Gjestal Silja Sock, in white, just an ordinary yarn. Then the green is a semisolid merino sock yarn, a bit lighter than what it looks in the photos, Indigo Moon Merino Superwash Fingering Weight. The red is another merino wool, tuLLiBaLL Råkk, coloured by two Norwegians, Siw , band kaos on Ravelry, selling yarn here.  Both the red and the green are beautiful and soft yarns, nice to work with. I have quite a bit left of the green, just a little bit of the red - I'm actually considering making a pair of socks (don't tell anyone...)

I can highly recommend the shawl pattern. I have made two of her shawls before, which I also loved. Her patterns are really well written. She's offering a discount form July 1st, till end of September, as part of the Summer Shawl KAL. You get to hang out on Ravelry with lot's of nice shawl knitters, who can answer any of your questions regarding shawls, and probably most other topics as well. I was tempted to knit another shawl actually, but I restrained myself, and will finish some other wips in stead. (Good girl!)

Mystery shawl clue #3

Clue #4 is up, and probably there are lots of finished photos in the thread in the Ravelry group. I checked there for the first three clues, but for the last clue, I wanted to keep the mystery all the way. I had the chart in the pattern of course, but I'm not able to figure out what a lace will look like from seeing the chart. I love working from charts, I think it's much easier than written instructions (in fact, I would never have worked lace like this if it wasn't charted). But still, lace pattern making is a mystery to me, even without a mystery KAL. Even so, I can tell you a small secret - I have included a little lace (very simple),  in my mystery mitten pattern. Introduction is up today. 

Here's a closeup of clue #3 from TTL's mystery shawl:

Mystery shawl clue #2

My water melon shawl is coming along nicely. Still enjoying the  pattern. More red lace in clue #3.

Mystery Shawl in progress

I have joined Through the Loops mystery shawl KAL 2013 on Ravelry. 

Here's the progress so far. First clue finished: 

Someone mentioned on Ravelry 

it reminded her of a slice of watermelon.

We happened to have a watermelon in the house, 

so I had to make this photo. 

Btw - the watermelon is from Brazil, 

bought in Lillehammer, Norway

where it costs 10 NOK,  appr 1.50 USD. 

How is that possible?

Btw2 - I'm amazed and thankful of all the interest

for the Mystery Mitten KAL in July. 

There are already 150 posts in the thread on Ravelry, 

almost a month before the KAL starts. 

Finally a shawl

Started: May 2010
Finished: March 2013

Pattern: Armorique
Designer: Anette Petavy

Yarn: Frøyagarn (Viking of Norway) - sock yarn
Needles: 3,5 mm

Modifications: Omitted scallops or leaves on the edge, as I was eager to get this out of my wips, and there was an upcoming birthday.

Notes: Hook not allowed on plane, so I had to leave my first hook on the other side of the Atlantic in 2010. But I had more hooks at home, so the airport is not to blame for me using almost three years on this project. Probably Ravelry and my startitis are to blame...