5 down... 2 to go...

That is how many shawls I have not only given as presents in 2009 for special friends with special birthdays but how many times I have spun laceweight and then knitted it up.... and enjoyed every minute of it from drafting and dizing the fibre to spinning, to choosing the pattern and to finally see the recipients face when they open the shawl.....

The final gift of 2009 ws to Christine (a friend / customer) who was 70 on the 11th December. I chose the 'Leaf & Nupp' shawl from Estonian Lace as it just seemed apt for the 'Fern' batts from Enchanted Knoll I spun up.....

Finished Size 18 x 63” blocked

I omitted the nupps to reduce yarn usage and worked 18 repeats of the main pattern. I also omitted the border and opted to just to do an edging at the CO & CO edges.

To work the edges I used the Leaf & nupp Lace Edge in the book, unzipped the cast on stitches and worked the pattern as stated EXCEPT knitting/purling as appropriate one extra stitch at each end of the row to use the 2 extra stitches. I also worked a row 10 as a plain purl row to secure yo’s from row 9 before doing the K2tog cast off.

After completing the 2nd Leaf & Nupp border (cast off edge), I worked the Leaf & Nupp Lace Edge as before.

This may sound a little 'vague' but when I check my ravelry projects I actually completed this shawl back in May!!! yes I worked all the shawls out of sequence just to add something to the mix and make life interesting or difficult... no really just to break all the 'green' spinning and knitting up.....

Next on the needles after Christmas is this - 'Chai' from Enchanted Knoll and this will become a Swallowtail for those who are counting this will be my 6th! a pattern I never tire off and IMHO is a classic... This will be ready for on or about the 24th January when my mum turns 80....

and for the fibre addicts among you this is how it stated out in life...... I can't speak highly enough of EK's batts....

I will just take this opportunity to wish everyone a festive Christmas and Happy New Year...

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)

Of all things spinning & knitting....

OK on the knitting front... I got round to casting on for the Lilac Leaf Shawl last week with the Pumpkin Juice lace weight yarn I spun from batts of the same name purchased from Enchanted Knoll a few weeks ago so far this is the end of the border chart and am about to commence on the 20 row pattern repeat how many times (should be 14) will depend on how far the yarn goes.... but all said I've enjoyed knitting with the yarn and it doesn't mask the lace pattern which is what I aimed for when spinning it; although the nupps aren't very prominent....

The rest of the post content is spinning....

After Pumpkin Juice I spun up 'Fern' again from Enchanted Knoll and this time, I think because my plying was a little looser I ended up with 606m / 105g of 2ply lace weight (30wpi)

This is destined to be a shawl for a 70th birthday in December this year! and at the moment I'm thinking Leaf & Nupp Shawl (can't you tell I got Nancy Bush's Knitted Estonian Lace for Christmas)

Not quite lace weight but getting there with the next one.... A 3ply (21wpi) Merino & Alpaca blend (338m / 114g) from All Spun Up. This was Kristen's Jan/Feb spin along fibre that people are taking part in on her Ravelry group.... I must say it isn't a colour I would have bought but none the less I rather like the finished colours.....

Also on Ravelry in Spinner Central a skein swap was organised wherein you had to spin 4oz of fibre into a yarn for your recipient... you saw the one I sent to Regiknits in my last post. Anyway this arrived from her yesterday.... it's a beautifully squishy Merino / Silk yarn originally purchased from Funky Carolina which she's spun longdraw... have to say the colours are one of my favourite combinations... I've no idea what to make with it yet but am thinking hat at the moment....

Finally a little stash enhancement :o) both from Enchanted Knoll; although I know my Fibre Club from The Yarn Yard is in the post and I bought 2 beautiful braids of 'Copper' from Natalie the other week which she is going to 'enhance' for me....

8oz of 'Black Magic Woman'

& 4oz of Snow Moon, wish I'd managed to snag 8oz after seeing them up close and personal!!!