Friday 9 March 2012

A love affair

I promised you all a very indulgent post about a shawl that I have been completely in love with recently. To say that I am besotted would be an understatement. As evidence of the reason why please see the picture below.


Pretty isn't it? The pattern is called Whippoorwill and is by Carina Spencer, who is also known as Sweet Mama on Ravelry. The pattern has been in my queue for quite some time. On a snowy day in February I decided it was time to release some stash that had been marinating for quite some time and cast on.

Firstly, let's talk about the yarn shall we? The main body is knit in NorthboundKnitting yarn, Super Wash Merino, a lovely fingering weight that I thoroughly enjoyed working with. As always with Lisa's yarns the colour is absolutely perfect and I was completely addicted from the get go. The colourway is called 'Moonstone' and is now firmly in my all-time top yarns. The subtle variation in this wonderful yarn is just the kind of colour that I love in order to create an interesting fabric.

To complement this lovely neutral I picked a Tactile Fibrer Arts yarn that I had been sent for review. The yarn is called Bolinas Sock and the colourway is 'Pomegranate'. It is a bouncy Blue Faced Leicester with a high twist that has been naturally dyed and I felt the red popped wonderfully for this project. While I had a few issues with bleeding from the yarn I had been cautious enough to soak it first as I knew that naturally dyed and red are both prone to bleeding. Luckily, it was more a case of excess and so I didn't lose any of its' wonderful deep colour.

(I'll be doing a fuller review in this Sunday's podcast episode so stay tuned for more news on this lovely yarn. It's a goodie.) 


I loved working up this pattern, and was sad that I didn't do my homework before it was too late to realise that I could have squeezed a medium-size shawl out of these two skeins. Realising this, I set about adding an extra red ripple and the size is now perfect to wear around my shoulders this summer. You can see more details and notes on my Ravelry page here.

Roll on summer!

PS I appear to be getting better with this dictation software -  photos!

3 comments:

behind the ivy said...

Gorgeous shawl! I love the contrast of the red against that lovely neutral colour. Moonstone is such a wonderful name for a yarn!

Estella said...

simply stunning - love your color choices!

Evelyn said...

I bought the Whippoorwill pattern months ago but haven't yet cast on. Seeing your shawl has completely inspired me! It's gorgeous.