Heartland...

Here as promised, at long last is the completed Heartland Shawl....

The design is by Evelyn Clark and was the winner of the 2006 Buffalo Gold/ Wild Fibers magazine creativity contest.

The fibre is Buffalo Gold # 4 which is 90% de-haired bison down/10% “buffalon” nylon. It's very soft to knit with and is a gorgeous chocolate colour. I used 4.5mm needles as stated in the pattern and did 5 repeats of the bison tracks pattern before starting the River of Life edging. I ended up with 12g of fibre out of the initial 186g.

Once I managed to get a reasonable amount of time to knit it I enjoyed knitting the shawl. The completed shawl came out 72" across the top edge and 36" down the spine.

As the kit was a birthday gift from my friend Mike in 2007, this one is mine to keep; and will be only the 2nd shawl I possess, as all the others are given as gifts...

Anyway here are the photographs.....







On the sock knitting front here are the completed Opal Magic 1040 socks for BIL's birthday... I've now started a couple of other pairs of socks to keep me out of mischief...


I've also made a start on a 2nd pair of Marvelous Mitts and am toying with casting on Spring Things shawl in the next few days with the lace yarn I spun....

Fibre is good for your diet, isn't it?

On the knitting front I completed DH's socks. My favourite pattern to work Lana Grossa Meetings (7740), this is the 4th time I've knit this pattern and the 4th different colourway.....

I've cast on another 2 pairs so I've Lana Grossa Bosca on the go (I'm starting my Christmas socks early this year) and Opal Magic which is for BIL's birthday at the beginning of June; I'm part way through the leg of the 2nd sock, so it's looking promising.....

The Heartland shawl is very nearly there I had a big push yesterday on knitting it, and I'm over halfway through the River of Life Edging, so hopefully next blog post will see it finished and blocked :o)))

And last but not least on the knitting front, do you remember the red & yellow sock yarn in my previous post? I said I'd given it to my friend Ann (blogless) to knit, well look what she did with it...... proudly presenting the Sunset Socks...

Hasn't she done a great job of making virtually matching socks... I think it's more down to my inability to split roving in half lenghtways evenly and my spinning skills that the pattern has gone astray on the foot of the 2nd sock..... To save you scrolling back down the fibre was my February/March fibre (BFL superwash) from The Yarn Yard Fibre Club.

I apologise now to everyone who isn't a spinner and isn't interested in spinning or looking at graphic images of fibre pron, as the rest of this post is spinning orientated....

Not by design, but I ended up with quite a bit of fibre arriving just in the last week or so.... The following 3 rovings are from The Yarn Wench and she was having a sale, so what could I do but participate? Serves me right I came in just over the £18 import on purchases so I had to pay the VAT & duty as well as the Royal Mails £8 handling charge; that bits gets me riled every time!!!

This is Chroma 2 - Falkland
This is Speckled Egg 1 - Merino

This is Sweet Pearl 2 - Falkland

Then my fibre from the The Yarn Yard Fibre Club arrived, which is gorgeous and is 50% Merino & 50% Tencel.....

Finally as I wanted to take part in the May SAL on Spinner Central on Ravelry (OK I've been looking for an excuse to order some roving from Amy)... I ordered some roving from Spunky Eclectic so I might as well make it worthwhile, so I ended up with :

M*A*S*H - Wool blend

Monkey Farts - Superwash Corriedale (DH can't get over the name ;o) )

and finally the reason I ordered the rovings, 'Joshua Tree' in South African Fine...

Now the Joshua Tree has since been turned into this:-

and finally in to this.....

A respectable first attempt at lace weight 636m / 100g & 28wpi & 6tpi (I used the 11.3:1 ratio on my Rose)

Now my only decision is what to make with it.... I've considered a few options but either I haven't sufficient yarn or my yarn is a bit thicker than a few of the patterns. I know that doesn't matter but I don't want to run out of yarn and would like a reasonable sized shawl... I have however decided not to include Swallowtail in the list having done 3 already I thought I'd go for something new. So far I have

1. Spring Things
2. Shetland Triangle - E Clark
3. Flower Basket
4. Forget-me-Knot
5. Hyacinth Lace

I would like to have done Laminaria but I don't have sufficient to do the larger version and I'm not sure I want to do the smaller version..... Anyone got any other suggestions?

I think I've waffled enough.... I'm a way for the Bank Holiday weekend, so I hope you all have a nice weekend and that the weather is good, but seeing it's a bank holiday I doubt it ;o) but we can live in hope...

Wednesday 16th April

Lame title but couldn't come up with anything else this morning :o| it was either that or Progress!!!

Anyway, this is the Heartland shawl almost nearing completion of its 4th repeat, definitely sufficient yarn for a 5th and possibly even a 6th; I'm weighing as I knit now to try and make an educated guess :o) if anyone else bought the Heartland Lace Shawl kit from Loom 'N Essence for this shawl and already done it, How many repeats did you do?

Here is what my main project is at the moment "Marvelous Mitts" from Karendipity These are for a birthday present for my good friend Carol at the beginning of May so I have 3 weeks to finish them, so I think I should be OK :o)

The yarn is Rowan 4ply Soft "Zing" (391) for the MC and Trekking Ombre 78 for the CC (which was leftover from a pair of socks I did earlier this year for myself... I like the colour combination but because the MC is a solid and the CC isn't too highly variegated I think you get good contrast between the two yarns to show of the pattern...

This is my 3rd attempt at colour work and I do enjoy it despite being a bit slow with having to use both hands; the knitting Continental style is getting quicker but the purl is still a bit slow and laborious..... but I'm persistent if nothing else... but then as I'm a Taurean "stubborn" is probably a more apt term for me :o))))

A finished pair of socks for my friend Janet's birthday next Tuesday (22nd) I completed these in 5 days but it does help when it's only for a size 4 foot... although I had problems with the yarn on the foot of the 2nd sock and ended up pulling 2" and the heel back because the stripes weren't matching..... there's that "stubborn" element again.... I know I won't see the socks after they go in the post but it would irritate me knowing I'd sent a pair of mis-matched socks... I'm fine if the yarn won't match but if it's meant to, it has to match

Here is one of my 'staple' pairs of socks on the go... this is my handspun sock yarn that I did at Christmas for my friend Mike who decided this would make a good pair of socks as soon as he saw the fibre (BFL superwash) I got from Natalie of the The Yarn Yard It's called "Firelight"

My other pair of "staple" socks that I have on the go (on DPN's) are in pretty much the same position and so far no problems with the self striping yarn.....

What's everyone else got on the needles?

Heartland Shawl by Evelyn A Clark

Here you go finally photos of my birthday gift I treated myself to... It's the Heartland Shawl Kit designed by Evelyn A Clark for the first Wild Fibers Magazine with which she won 1st prize. The yarn is American Buffalo 2ply yarn (100%) which I purchased from Sharon (who couldn't have been more helpful) at Loom n Essence.






I'm really looking forward to doing this shawl. I love Evelyn Clark's designs, she's one talented lady. The yarn is soooo soft and a beautiful chocolate brown colour. The pattern is called "Bison Tracks Lace" meant to symbolize the Bison tracks and the edging is called "River of Life"