'Moths' Shawl

'Moths' Shawl

Knitted in Manos del Uruguay 30% Silk 70% Merino on 6mm needles. Working time 3 weeks.

 This yarn is gorgeous and is produced by a women's cooperative in Uruguay.

http://manosdeluruguay.co.uk/

I sourced the yarn from South Seas Knitting whilst I was home on holiday in Dec/Jan.

http://www.southseasknitting.com/yarns/?p=41&o=505&u=202ca54c0170e9a341605bb4625e48cd

The pattern was from Knitty and is called Ella

http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall05/PATTella.html 

The finished shawl, prior to blocking. I had a bit of a wait before I could block this shawl because I had ordered a set of stainless steel blocking wires and they took a little while to arrive. It was worth the wait though because it made blocking much more accurate and well, not easier but perhaps more straight forward than using pinned yarn - which is how I did the beaded wrap. 

The shawl blocked and still on the wires. 

And here it is all finished and draped. It is wonderfully light

snuggly.

Scheming and Plotting.... Baby Knits.

A friend of ours is having a baby... a long awaited for and very precious baby, for which I feel the need to knit...

I wanted to use this fine 4 ply that I have in my stash

http://www.morrisandsons.com.au/catalog/multi_info.php?cPath=1_363_1546&multiID=1546

However, as I commenced my hunt for patterns I discovered that there are hardly any baby patterns out there for 4 ply. They are all 8-12 ply, which I didn't want to use...

I finally found this book though; Cleckheaton No. 951. The patterns are really cute and pretty simple so it won't take long once I get going.


Having gotten the bit very firmly between my teeth once again; this time
with baby stuff, I started looking at all sorts of baby patterns; hats in particular.
As I was searching the net for patterns I came across this website -

http://www.theyarnqueen.co.nz/beaniesforbabies.html?lnum=103896

Now, as there are very few babies in and around my world at the moment, I think this will be a great way to have an endless outlet for knitting cute baby stuff as well as contributing to a worthy cause at the same time. Also, baby hats are a great way to use up left over yarn in ye olde stash.

In my search for baby hat patterns I came across this book. Now the
patterns are for 8 and 12 ply but they are so cute I couldn't resist...
Here are some of the patterns inside...

Looks like fun huh?

On the Needles

So, I decided I needed a bag to cart my knitting around in and whilst surfing around came across this pattern on Knitty -

http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter03/PATTfrenchmarket.html

I think it looks pretty funky so have been knitting test swatches and felting them to find a look/yarn I'm happy with. Sigh... Eventually I decided to just use some yarn that I brought over with me from NZ -

Harvest Pure Wool 50g / 93m. 22st / 30 rows on 4 mm needles.

I had been knitting a striped black and red shrug with it but had stalled because I wasn't happy with how the shape was turning out. I unraveled the work I'd done and am just knitting the yarn as it comes off the balls in a random two tone splodge with the yarn doubled on 5mm needles, so it's pretty chunky!

The base of the bag is knitted in the round, something I've not done before so I went to youtube to look for some tutorials. After watching one using 5 double point needles (OMG!) I decided there had to be a better way and found this one, which is called the 'magic loop' method -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdSpc0EZpnk

The base is nearly finished and I'm about to start on the sides of the bag.

With our move to India looming I decided that I required a few (got 6 planned so far...... oh dear.....bit between teeth = run away horse.... ) wraps/shawls. However wool was obviously not going to cut the mustard for most of the year in Gurgaon so I've been exploring alternatives. Silk; which I adore, would probably be too hot... although I have found a website in the UK which sells superfine cobweb/lace weight silk which I feel obliged to experiment with at some stage in the future. That leaves fibres like bamboo, linen and cotton. Now as I don't want chunky because chunky will equal too hot to wear, finding yarns that are fine enough has been a bit of a challenge.

However yesterday I found this gorgeous cotton -

http://www.morrisandsons.com.au/catalog/multi_info.php?cPath=1_481_483&multiID=483

and bought a ball to test. I've got the Deep Red colour... yummy! A search online then ensued to find a pattern that would be in the ball park for weight/gauge and late last night I finally settled on this one -

http://www.straw.com/cpy/patterns/scarves/pandawool-weekendr-stole.html

As you can see in the photo it is in its infancy but I'm quite happy with how it is knitting up so far and don't think I'll change anything; although.... I am thinking some beads might be a pretty nice addition! I'm using 5.5mm needles because I want the lace pattern to be open, airy and as light as possible.

Beaded Lace Shawl

Beaded Lace Shawl

Morris Empire Superwash Merino 2 ply

Knitted on 4.5mm needles. Completed Dec 2009 - working time: around 6 months.

Huge learning curve for this project. I hadn't knitted for about 20 mumble years! 

Before Blocking with string threaded along edges.


















Detail of beading prior to blocking
























During Blocking

This was the first thing I'd ever blocked so it was pretty experimental. I used stretched string and as the shawl was rectangular it worked out okay. 









The finished shawl!

Greetings

Welcome to my blog. I'm still setting up, so bear with me whilst I fumble around on the dark side of not knowing what the heck I'm doing!