Butterflies and baby camels

Yep, this is a post about butterflies and baby camels. The shawl I have recently completed is the butterfly part. It's the Mariposa shawl which means butterflies in Spanish. 

This was a very satisfying shawl to knit. One of the main factors contributing to the pleasure of knitting this shawl was the yarn I used, Dyed By Hand Yarns Camel Train Lace. And this is where the baby camel comes in. The yarn is a 50/50 blend of baby camel and silk. Its a great yarn to knit with. The yarn glides through the hand and doesn't split which is very good because its such a fine yarn. I found the yarn gave good stitch definition and lovely drape. I was also able to give the shawl a hard block.

I knitted the shawl on 3.75 needles and used 61g. I have one more skein of this yarn in my stash and I'm looking forward to knitting with it. Just need to find the right pattern.

Three way shawl

Here is a super easy and very versatile shawl, the Chameleon Shawl.

I've been meaning to knit this shawl for ages but couldn't find the right yarn. I started it once with some Tosh Lace but the colours weren't quite right. Then on a visit to Bendigo Woollen Mills I spied some Luxury 4 ply in Bracken and Wild Barley and knew I had the right combination. The 4 ply meant that the shawl turned out quite large but I don't mind that. Its going to be a great winter shawl.

The worst part of the shawl is the edging. Its not at all difficult but like all edgings it seems to take forever. I needed to put it down every now and then and knit something else just to have a bit of a break.

New beginnings

It's the first day of the new year so I would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year.

I am going to try to be a better blogger this year. I became very slack in the second half of 2012 and soon fell out of the habit of regular blogging.

So I'm going to start with a brief catch up and share a few projects with you which I completed the last couple of months.

First off, I tried my hand at designing my own shawl and Palm Leaf was the result.

The yarn is Bendigo Woollen Mills 2 ply classic hand dyed by EmilytheEnabler and the needle size 3.5mm.

I had a lovely skein of Yarn Pirate Superwash Merino Sock yarn in Brown Sugar which I didn't know what to do with it. So with the help of fellow Ravellers I ended up knitting a Pogona and this was the result.

I participated in a blue swap on Ravelery. For this swap you have to provide your partner with yarn and goodies all in the colour blue. I decided to knit a shawl for my partner and finally had the opportunity to knit a Boo Knits pattern, Dragonfly Wings.

And to finish off I knitted two shawls for another Raveller as part of a different swap. Another lovely Booknits pattern, Heaven Scent

and Be.Leaf by Kitman Figueroa.

Okay, that's enough to start the year. There are more in the pipeline!

Where has the time gone?

It has been far too long since I have posted. Plenty has happened on the knitting front but I have been too busy to post about it. I'll start with two of my completed projects.

The first is a pair of Leyburn socks which I knitted in Patonyle. I decided that I didn't like the heel with these socks so I substituted with the short row heel used in the Kellswater Socks.

I worked on this while on holiday at the beautiful Wilson's Promontory.

When I got back I worked hard at finishing my Vitamin D. I knitted this is Bendigo Woollen Mills Luxury 4ply in Ghost. This was a great cardi to knit and has become my favourite cardi to wear.

More knitting news in my next post!

Boo Knits

Ever since I saw the first design of Boo Knits I have been wanting to knit one of her shawls. Her designs are so ethereal and I was waiting for the right yarn and the right frame of mind to knit one of her delicate shawls.

Some  time ago I participated in a colour swap on Ravelry, the red swap, and I received a cone of ColourMart 2/28 Merino. The perfect yarn for a delicate knit. So when the time was right I cast on Almost Autumn.

And here she is:

I knitted the shawl as directed but omitted the picot cast off and did my usual stretchy cast off instead. The lace section is knitted on 4.5mm needles and the stocking stitch section on 4mm needles. The shawl used a mere 24g of yarn!

Gradients

Many months ago I got the itch to try some gradient yarns but I was having difficulty in finding yarns in the colour and weight that I wanted. I then did a deal with a Ravelry friend (who now has a great etsy shop, Ozifarmer's Market) to dye some yarn for me. The base is a very fine merino which is almost a cobweb weight.

And then a few weeks ago she very generously gifted me two more skeins of her lovely gradient dyeing.

Ever since I received the first lot of yarn I have been looking for the right pattern. I finally decided on Longing for Robins Return for my first attempt. This is a shawl that has long been in my queue and I was very happy to finally be able to knit it. I thought the very fine yarn would be ideal for this delicate pattern.

Once I had finished this shawl I was eager to give another one a go and this time I decided on the Leadlight shawl using the Bendigo Woolen Mills 2ply base.

I'm eager to try a few more shawls using gradient yarns, any pattern suggestions?

Almost forgot about this one

Way back in June I cast on Bakau. I thought it would be a quick and easy knit and one that I could take with me on my travels.

And it was indeed quick and easy and while we were in lovely Murramarang I very nearly finished it but ran out of yarn while casting off. I set the shawl aside while I looked for a solution and over time I forgot about the shawl.

Then, a few nights ago, I was knitting Longing for Robin's Return using a gradient yarn dyed by Ozifarmer when I realised that the colour I had reached would matched my Bakau. Now Bakau was knitted in a 4ply Bambaroo and I was using a very fine laceweight for Longing for Robin's Return, so I merely held it double and cast off my Bakau. And I am happy to say that the difference in yarn is barely noticable.

I used 4mm needles and 155g of hand dyed Yarn Workshop Bambaroo.