Teal Citron Shawl

My latest version of the Citron shawl - this time in teal blue and a slight change to the pattern.

 

This one is mine. Teal is my favourite colour in the world.

Knitting - on special request

... you know who you are! ;-)

I have been busy knitting lots of stuff recently. The weather was just so bad that there never seemed a moment of sunlight to take pictures, or if there was, I was busy. LOL

Oh well, here it is....

Citron shawl
Knitted with a lace weight lambswool. Pattern is here. Despite adding an extra repeat of the pattern it turned out a bit smaller than the one in the pattern because I used smaller needles and lace weight yarn. It looks great as a sweet little scarf in a Rockabilly kind of way and I love it. It's a present for a friend, whose favourite colour this is. :-)

Purple Slanted Shawl

Again, this is a present. It's a huge long shawl in a mohair yarn, knitted on the slant with several patterns in random order. I've embellished it with little beads at both ends.

Glacier Shawl and Wrist Warmers

Sorry guys, this set is mine. It's made from Rowan kidsilk in the colour 'Glacier' and I love, love, love it. LOL
The pattern is my own, although it's fairly simple, the stripes are created by alternating st st with drop stitch rows, the 'icicles' on the sides are simple increases and castoffs. Like the purple shawl it's very long and warm and soft. :-)

The matching wrist warmers are my own design too - the cable pattern is on both sides (front and back).

I am currently knitting another Citron shawl, this time in the correct yarn, but with a slightly modified pattern. That's for me too.... LOL I am also making a mobile with a sea creatures theme from wire, but it's not finished yet....

If you live in the Cambridge area and would like to have an invite to my next jewellery party (25th March) send me an e-mail.

Lovehearts all around - Presents

It was my lovely sister's birthday on Sunday, so I sent her some presents:

Raspberry Sorbet Poncho

My sister loves pink and yellow so I thought this cotton/linen mix yarn is perfect for her.



The design is similar to my Where the Land Meets the See Poncho although this design is not exactly the same as I made some improvements.

It's the perfect garment for all year round. It can be worn as a scarf, a shawl, a poncho a capelet over a Summer dress or a Winter coat. Best of all, there are no loose ends to flap in your face in a strong wind and it leaves your arms free to move (and you don't need to hold it tight like a shawl).

The pattern is again the little scallops which I think works really well with this yarn. It's so soft and yummy and available in lots of scrumptious colours from the Knitting4fun website.



The yarn is easy to knit and two skeins of yarn make the whole capelet. I might provide the pattern to download sometime soon.


Lovehearts Necklace

This necklace is based on my Sweetheart necklace, which I am wearing all the time. However, this time I've used a myriad of beads in pinks and yellows. Some vintage, some Ghana trade beads, some new, some fabric, some woven, some paper (with a coat of resin over the top), wood, lucite, resin, glass, metal... you name it, it's in there somewhere. :-)


Here are some detail shots of the beads and charms I've used:

All the findings are either black matt coated brass, brass, pewter, copper, vintage and modern, with lots of little details so the necklace never gets boring. It can be worn twice around the neck or long.

There are two sweetheart charms leftover. The sweetheart charm is actually a locket so you could put a picture inside it.

Where the Land Meets the Sea Shawl - Poncho - Capelet

I just bought this gorgeous cotton and linen mix yarn from the lovely Bev at Knitting4fun and had to make something special from it.


This is my own design and I am not quite sure if it's a poncho, shawl, shrug, capelet or a cowl. LOL It's so versatile and will slip over the shoulders or sit loosely round your neck. It might even fit looped round your neck twice, but I haven't tried that. Here are some ways to wear it:



Here you can see the yarn in detail with all the lovely shades of green and blue... YUM. The pattern is a fairly simple scallop lace pattern. It's easy to do and works well with this kind of yarn.

I've got the same yarn in pink and yellow (very soft yellow) so watch this space for more gorgeousness.

Moebius Shawl

Here's the Moebius Shawl I made last week. It was a fairly quick knit although the first row was quite difficult.

The pattern is by Cat Bordhi and one of her free patterns.

The shawl is knitted in one piece with a half twist and no seams. It's a bit like knitting an Escher painting. Here's some info on the Moebius strip.


I don't think I would have been able to knit it without this helpful video by Cat Bordhi on YouTube. Once started, it's quite easy... as long as you don't think about how you are knitting this. LOL

Here's a picture showing the shawl in detail (natural light). The shawl is knitted from the centre and just grows from there (don't ask me how, can't get my head around it).


And here's another picture with flashlight showing off the gorgeous colours and texture of the FleeceArtist Merino yarn in the colourway Paris.

The yarn used in the original pattern is a much heavier weight than this so I doubled up the number of stitches and rows which worked really well. I also changed the border of the shawl to a picot edge.

Progress report: Mermaid Shawl Part 3

Here's the next installment of the mermaid shawl:


And here's a detail image of the anemones:



I took more images but the morning sunlight reflected too much off some of the metallic threads and the photos looked blurred. So more details with the next installment.

The shawl is between a third and half done. As you can see it's wider in some parts than others which means it flows and drapes nicely.

I have so far included:

acetate floss in turquoise
metallic thread in peacock blue
hand dyed bamboo in shades of jade green
Rowan kidsilk in medici blue
handpainted kidsilk in shades of turquoise and blue
opalescent glitter thread
furry thread
hemp in blue and green
lurex in black and turquoise mix
silver white fuzzy novelty yarn
sequins (shells and spirals)
beads (various Magatama and Miyuki beads, seed beads, glass pearls)

The design choices I make are based on the story of the little mermaid by Andersen. I thought that she might be homesick and this shawl should be something that reminds her of the life she left behind. Hence, anemones, starfish, shells and sea snails, blues, greens, waves and nets.

Mermaid Shawl - Progress Report - Part 2

A day and a half have brought me to this:


It is slow going but utterly satisfying. The funny thing is, it looks jolly complicated, but it isn't, really. I use it to try out new patterns - some I make up, others I get from the net or from my stitch library. The good thing about this is that I get to try a pattern I like the look of but don't need to do too much of it if I then find it's too fussy or I just can't remember the stitches... It does happen quite a lot with lace patterns. Some just don't seem to have a 'rhythm' that works with mine.
I am particulalry pleased with this fish tail. I hadn't intended to make a fish tail, but when I tried out that 'little scallop' pattern I thought it looked like scales... so one thing led to another and here's my pretty fish tail. I think I'll embroider it with some sequins at some point.

On the topic of embroidery, it took me all morning to embroider these beads and finish off all the loose threads (which is why it looks a little tidier now). Embroidery or sewing isn't really my thing which is why I try to pick up stitches or crochet on existing edges rather than have to sew on bits...

Here's a little ruffly coral that was knitted separately and incorporated with the rest of the shawl with a bit of creative crochet. :-)



And here's a limpet:


All in all there IS progress, but it will take time...

... mind you, I just ordered some specialist yarns (glitters, snarls, metallics and other fun stuff) in reds and pinks for the next one... this could become an addiction....

Present - Rainbow Shawl

Finally finished - not that it took me very long at all really as I only started it a week ago.

Rainbow Shawl

... with dark clouds around it - how else could you see the rainbow?


This shawl is a present for my marathon running friend Caroline. She hasn't seen it yet, so shhhh!

It's a really versatile shawl that can be worn different ways. The pattern is from a knitting/crochet techniques book and is called 'Flickering Flames'. The border and design is my own idea and the rainbow yarn is from one of my favourite shops on Etsy: Tulle And Dye. It's a re-dyed Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. The grey yarn is rough silk and has almost a lavender tint to it.

Here is the yarn in more detail.

It was fun and interesting to make - not too taxing but not boring either. I love the contrast of the two yarns and it drapes really nicely.

Fingers crossed she'll like it. :-)

Back to my boho-Chanel top. :-)

Strawberry Fields - Shawl

Here's my latest shawl. I wanted a red one to wear in the Summer and I'd had my eye on a Feather & Fan lace pattern for a while. So here's my

Strawberry Fields Shawl

It's the perfect shawl as it can be worn in a variety of ways...

... it's the most gorgeous red colour which I achieved by holding together strands of Japanese Red and Petunia Pink Clara Brilhante cotton from www.yarnstick.co.uk, which have been great in sending my cotton very, very quickly. I even managed to finally get real emerald green cotton - I'd been looking all over for it. It's amazing how many people don't know their colours!!!

The shawl is quite long (1.70m) and it's wide and soft enough to be worn as either a shawl or a scarf. Perfect for a Summer evening or a cool Spring morning.


The two strands of yarn held together almost look like cotton chenille as the pink is slightly lighter than the red and therefore gives the impression of highlights like on chenille.

It was surprisingly quick to make - only 4 days - and that's including finishing. If you want one, check out the colours here, and then let me know which colours you'd like. Keep in mind that I will need two balls of yarn (either in the same or two different colours) and about 500m (altogether) as the yarn is too thin to be knitted with just one strand, if you want a shawl that can be worn all year round.

Depending on the yarn you choose the shawl will be between £25 and £30. The cotton is colour fast and can be washed easily.

Raspberry Shawl

This is the shawl I've been knitting for the past week.

It was a bit of a mixed bag as far as the knitting was concerned. I'd just knitted several lace patterns and this pattern seemed to be boring compared to knitting lace, which made it difficult for me to focus and meant I made mistakes, although none of them are obvious. However, I did make a few changes, partly because of the mistakes. My edge wasn't as clean and tidy as I'd hoped so I edged it with crochet and emphasised the ridges to get even more of a 'shibori' look, which I like better. It's also longer and I didn't include the tabs from the original pattern.

The Rowan Kidsilk in Vino I've used is absolutely stunning and the simple pattern and texture work perfectly together. My lovely flower brooch matches as well. :-)

All in all, I am very pleased with the finished result and think it was well worth it. Laura's book 'Boutique Knits' contains lots of lovely patterns that can easily be adapted to suit you. I'd highly recommend it to who wants to knit something a bit different.

Poinsettia Heirloom Shawl - Chenille with Needle Felted Flowers

Finally it's finished and photographed:

The Heirloom Poinsettia Shawl

This is something really special for a very special occasion. In fact it is so special and unique that it should be wrapped up safely in a drawer to be lovingly taken out and stroked now and again until that one day when this shawl will make a special day even better - from an anniversary to a ball to a wedding... as long as it's a special day :-)




The main part of the shawl has been made from thick velvety viscose chenille that will keep you warm even in a cold church on Christmas eve.



The butterfly and the fifteen flowers have been painstakingly needle felted from 100% merino wool. I have then used special beading thread in a matching green, Indian green luster beads and Japanase seed beads to attach them to the shrug.



The edging and fringe have been crocheted. The pattern you can see below is my own design. I was going to use an Edwardian edging design but it went the wrong way round so I had to make my own pattern. I am really pleased with how it turned out.

The shawl is roughly 1.93m (or 76") long and 0.38m (15") wide.

It will be available in my Etsy shop shortly.