Time out

I am spending the next few weeks in the beautiful Murramarang National Park. This is the view from my verandah.

Knitting is taking place. In fact I have already finished something and I'm wearing it. But more of that when I eventually get home.

Girasole

Ever since I first saw the pattern for Girasole I have wanted to knit it but I never came across the right yarn for it. Then, after my failed attempt to knit the Dahlia cardigan using Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, I realised that I had the right yarn for a Girasole. This is gorgeous yarn, butter soft and lovely to work with.

When I started knitting I very soon realised that I didn't have enough yarn for the full shawl and decided I would skip the final chart. I did this but then three quarters of the way through the knitted edging I ran out of yarn. Fortunately a fellow raveller came to the rescue and I was able to finish the shawl. Actually, its  large enough and so warm that it could easily pass for an afghan or baby blanket.  It measures 132cm in diameter.  I knitted it with 4mm needles and used almost 9 skeins, about 1,100m.

Fire and steam

I have been absent from my blog for some time but that doesn't mean I haven't been knitting! I've quite a bit to share with you over the next few posts but first quite a lot of blocking needs to take place. In the meantime I do have two completed projects to share.

The first relates to the fire in the title. Meet Thirteen the Lucky Dragon. This was a test knit for laughing purple goldfish designs. I just grabbed some DK acrylic I had to hand and this was result.

I think he has a bit of attitude! And he was fun to knit.

As for the steam. Well I knitted a modified version of The Age of Brass and Steam with some lovely handspun I got from Handspun Hippy. I didn't have enough yarn to knit the full kerchief so I knitted fewer repeats and ended with four rows of garter stitch.

Now I need to go and spend some quality blocking time!