Progress...

Well progress on 'Leaf & Nupp Shawl' got halted for a couple of days while I did this.... yes another Swallowtail, I can't believe it but this is my 5th and still I don't find it boring, but it's something I know I can do quick and in most weights of yarn. This was for a lady who know who needed a black scarf quickly, so as you can see I've done the mini version with only 9 repeats of budding lace.

Other adaptions include omitting rows 3&4 of the peaked edging due to stitch count and rows 16 & 16 of the same chart as I didn't want the edging too scalloped seeing this is for a sombre occasion. Oh yes! almost forgot it's done in Patons Diploma Gold 4ply and used 1 full 50g ball and not quite half of the 2nd worked on 4.5mm needles...


Finished size 48" across the top and 23" down the spine...


So far so good with the 'Leaf & Nupp Shawl' I've done 2 repeats of the pattern, but I did stop to do the bottom edging before progressing further as I didn't want to run out of hand spun and thought at least if I d this bit now I can work out what weight of yarn I'll roughly need to save to finish the other end.....

I didn't want to do a border all the way round so I opted just to put it on the top and bottom edges. It worked quite well as by simply just doing an extra knit/purl stitch at either end the 75sts worked into the edging pattern nicely.

I also opted not to do the Nupps as well to reduce yarn usage.....

With all this lace knitting I now have a sore index finger and a hole were I keep pushing the point in to it :o(

On a happier note my 1st installment from The Happy Hooves Sock Batt club came from Enchanted Knoll this week... 'Roses in the Snow' its a wild card set of batts hence the contrast batt in a beautiful Buttercup gold.... I have to say I can't see myself spinning and knitting into socks they're far too nice I can quite envisage these becoming lace.....

Moi obsessed?

Sunday 8th February...

I know uninspiring title.... but I couldn't think of anything else... anyway first of all if you're reading this Fleegle I hope you're feeling better and up and out of hospital...

After several weeks on the needles I finally completed the 'Embers' socks for Mike; I bought the yarn in 2007 as part of his Christmas present...

The yarn is 'Bonny' (75% wool & 25% polyamide) from Natalie of The Yarn Yard (keep checking back for updates) and was lovely to knit especially like orange/grey combinations...

On the lace knitting front or should I say knitted lace as the 'Leaf & Nupp Shawl' has no plain rest rows... I've completed the bottom edge and have actually managed 7 rows of the centre panel; mainly due to the fact that I had to have 3 attempts at getting the 1st row right!!!!

The 1st attempt saw me getting to the end of the row with an extra stitch as I'd missed a K1 at the beginning of the row. My 2nd attempt saw me as far as half way along row 3 before I realized that I had not purled the appropriate stitches on row 1. Finally on the 3rd attempt I got to the end of row 1 with no extra stitches and purling the stated stitches as well!!!

I should add the yarn is my own hand spun, which came from 'Fern Batts' produced by Josette of Enchanted Knoll so far I like the bottom edge but perhaps I've done insufficient of the centre panel, but it does feel like that the 'leaves' aren't showing up...

Finally this arrived in the post last week again from Natalie of The Yarn Yard, it's my Fibre club installment and its 80% Merino % 20% Nylon blend which is so soft and squishy, it's an absolute dream to spin (I got to test spin some over Christmas)... this is 'Faded Jeans'... and as you can see they're based on an old pair of jeans that are getting a bit faded and thread bare and have been splashed with mud from the garden....

I love Natalie's dying skills she truly comes up with some fantastic inspirations for the colourways :o)

Lilac Leaf Shawl

From this.... to this...

and finally to this...

in approx 5 weeks :o0

I used 3.75mm needles and all but 7g of my hand spun lace weight which came from Pumpkin Juice batts from Enchanted Knoll...

I however only got 10 repeats instead of 14 due to lack of yarn and was concerned it may not come out sufficiently long enough... it ended up a respectable 19.5 x 55" when blocked which is actually generous enough for a scarf or a shoulder shawl and with hindsight I think the recipient will get more use out of this than a bigger shawl....

I am pleased with this and have started Leaf & Nupp shawl in my Fern lace weight spun from EK batts :o) but I'll save that for another day.....