Fiber Friday: I finished the shawl

Remember the shawl I started a few weeks ago? I finished it a few weeks ago and blocked it this week.  What a lovely shawl it is,  if  I do say so myself.




Made with 300 plus lace weight yards of Alpaca/silk purchased at Alapcas of Wildcat Hollow in Eskridge, KS.  It was lovely to spin. I love, love, love the natural color.

WIP Wednesday: Another Shawl!

In 2010 I knit and crocheted 10 shawls. as a part of the 10 shawls in 2010 forum on Ravelry.  I had a blast doing too.  In 2011 I needed a break making shawls.  How many shawls does a gal need anyway?  I'm ready to make a few more.




Since I've finished up spinning the lovely Alpaca/Silk fiber I bought while at Yarn School last year.
415 yards of Lace Weight Yarn.




I decided I'd hook up another South Bay Shawlette by Lion Brand.  Out of character for me  I know but I'm not going to dye the yarn.  I want to let the natural color shine here and I could use a natural shawl.

Dyeing Progress and 8 of 10

A blurry pic but shows the neonish greens kooliad dyed mini skeins. I overdyed it with some acid dyes. 2tsp red, 1 tsp blue, 5 drops black. The mini skeins total up to about 100 grams of yarn.



I wish I had saved back some of the colors for a better comparison. I think photo above shows how overdyeing with a wee bit of red really tones down the colors. I like the greens much better.

On the left you see some of the Raspberry Sherbet next to Purple Rain. The Purple Rain is about 100 grams of the Raspberry Sherbet overdyed with 1 tsp blue, 10 drops yellow and 5 drops black, 50 ml vinegar.

While dyeing yesterday I started 8 of 10. Yes that means another shawl. I'm using my teal dyed handspun merino/silk.

Yet another shawl...

I'm knitting yet another shawl. You can see more about it on Ravelry here



I've found I love knitting shawls. There is something inherently soothing of larger needles and finer yarns. The yarn overs and the decreases are meditative and relaxing.

Shawls - Lots of them

I've been yarning lots of shawls. So many that I joined the 10 shawls in 2010 group on Ravelry. So my list of shawls to make keeps getting longer and longer.

Shawl One: Ultra Traveling Woman


Traveling Woman by Liz Abinante
Did extra repeats of the horseshoe pattern and could have done more. I had over an ounce of fiber left.
Ultra Alpaca Fine - Love the feel of the yarn but it's splitty. So I 'm not sure if I would buy it again.
US 6 needles




Shawl Two:


All Shawl by Doris Chan
Changed up the edging. I replaced the pineapple border to the shell stitch. I like this shawl but I'm not sure it's my color. They yarn is super soft.
Cascade Heritage Paints and Solid - Used up what was left from my Dreaming of Spring socks.
I/5.5 mm hook






Shawl Three: Red Wine Saroyan


Saroyan by Liz Abinante
I did a few extra pattern repeats in the middle section.
US 10 Needles
365 yards of Cascade 220

It's really soft and squishy but it's more like scarf in style so I don't know how much I will use it. I find I really like my triangular shawls as scarves as they stay on and looks pretty too.




Shawl Four: A nod to the gods shawl


Three-cornered Scarf by Ruth Hollowell in Intentional Spinner by Judith MacKenzie McCuin
US 8 but I wish I had used US 10
Used all but a small bit of my Wenslydale handspun single
I love how this turned out as the colors transition wonderfully.

The fiber before spinning:


Spun Fiber:




Shawl Five: In the Dark


198 Yards of Heaven Shawl by Christy Verity
I used more of a sport weight yarn than the worsted yarn called for in the pattern. Hence I used about 288 yards of my very own black merino handspun yarn. I also omitted the edging rows using some else's mods from Ravelry.
US 8 needles

The handspun yarn:


A bad photos of me wearing it for scale:


Five done and five more to go. I have one on the needles right now and the yarn for one more.

Mad spinning

Since I finally managed to knit and crochet down most of the yarn stash. Someday I need to show you all what I have been making. What I feel most proud about is all the spinning have been doing. I've been spinning so much that my legs are sore. Really it's true.



Doesn't it look lovely. I started a shawl with some of it last night while sipping a beer with some fiber friends. I needed that beer!



It will be the 3 corner shawl from The Intentional Spinner.

Yippee! It's Shawl Season

It's finally cooling down so I can wear my shawls. There are a few some of you have not seen in my blogging absence.

Eva Shawl


A free pattern online here, made with lace with yarn from knit picks, in my favorite colors.



It's very light weight and nice if it's just a bit cool outside and great even in the summer when you go in to the store that is cooler than it is outside.



This picture I just had to share because I like it so much. Danielle is such a sweet kitty.

My Flower Basket Shawl and first knitted lace shawl.


(if you click through to flickr and look at the larger photos you can get some great detail on the pattern)




Specs:
Flower Basket Lace Shawl and Scarf by Evelyn A. Clark
Size 5.0mm needles and about 1000 yards of Naturnspun Sport in Mallard



Finally my Infinity Shawl:


Specs:
Infinity Wrap designed by Kristin Omdahl
Interweave Crochet Winter 2007
Plymouth Boku and and I / 5.5mm hook



That's all for now. You all stay warm now.

Spiral Shawl

I started this one in April of last year. When the heat hit it went away. It's much to hot here in Kansas to crochet with alpaca. I'm so glad this is done now as it's keeping me very warm while I hangout in our cold energy conserving house.

Specs:

• Frog tree alpaca - 13 skeins - eep! In purple/lavender
• crochet hook 3.5mm
• Patchwork Shawl from Mon Tricot Knit & Crochet The Knitters' Basic Book Vol2. I'm pretty sure its also the Carnival Shawl that's in a Rowan pattern book. I lucked out and found the Mon Tricot mag at the thrift store a few weeks after someone shared her finished shawl on crochetville.
  

Other free options for the pattern:

• I found this shawl pattern here that has a similar motif but done bigger but it could be adapted.
• Another free option here that would also work.

Another view just before I added the fringe which shows how hard it is to get good color photos especially with purple. The one below gives better feel for just how beautiful this fiber is but the one above gives a bit better idea that this really is purple rather than blue.



Someday I'll make this again without the fringe. Fringe is fun but it gets in the way.