Beatrice Shawl

 

Sometime I have a result in dyeing that I am not quite that happy with.

Take this yarn; It is a beautiful soft 125g of merino, gorgeously spun originally white.

 

Than I dyed it randomly with yellow red and blue dye powder and although I wasn't totally disappointed it turned out very different from what I had hoped for.

 

What to use it for??????????

 

So it lay in waiting for more then a year, perhaps even two until this pattern caught my eye....

 

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/beatrice-shawl

 

 

So I knitted it.

 

And blocked it.



 

 

And now I like it a lot.

The pattern was very suitable for this yarn and turned it into a very happy shawl that is light and very soft.

 

 



Dartmoore fleece processed.

In January this year I joined a group in Auckland and with friends we spend a day dyeing wool according to the Dartmoore project.

You can read about that here;

Dartmoore project

It took all day and we ended up with 1white fleece of our sheep Anisha, transformed into 48 different dyelots of colours. As you can see below.

A third of that I took home and spun and plied....during the Ravelry Tour the fleece event.

This event saw spinners from all over the world 'compete' in a virtual way, by spinning each day during the Tour the France. Having a rest day during the bikers rest days and spinning something challenging during the challenge days too. Just for the fun of it. We shared our results and chatted  on the ravelry group. There were prizes and giveaways...I must say it was very motivating to get a lot of spinning done! 

I ended up with 4 skeins of beatiful yarn in very lovely colours, plied with a barberpole effect.

Then I picked a simple shawl pattern and knitted a shawl.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/squishylove-shawl

I did that during the Ravelympics.

You, guess....On ravelry again; different virtual events could be entered by members for all kind of projects to be done.

Again just for fun and amusement and lots of motivation just by sharing with others the progress made.

I entered the 'Shawl sailing' event. But I did not make it to the finish line in time. Althoug I knitted the bulk of it while watching the Olympics as often as possible. Which coincided with evening times here.

This is the result. I am very happy with how this turned out.

I am a slow knitter and each row counted 300 stitches............Also calving time started on the farm so that did not leave too much time for knitting.

But I did it and finished the shawl by simply knitting till I ran out of wool.

I realy wanted to keep all the colours of the Dartmoor dyed fleece together in one garment.

I am glad I did.

My mohair heaven.

From these two slivers,

Left; a mix of black Alpaca 80% with red yellow pink Silk 20%

Right; Ash grey shiny 100% Mohair

I spun (already some time ago) 1 single each and I plied those together. To get this;

Then using the following pattern for a lace shawl;

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/198-yds-of-heaven

I knitted this shawl.

You see it here while it is blocked up (= damp from washing and stretched and pinned to the carpet to enhance shape and pattern)

The colours are very difficult to photograph...

 But if you look closely you may see the hint of colour that the silk provides.

It is 168cm/67.2" across the shoulders and 76 cm/30.4" down the back.
And I still have yarn left!

It has turned out much more beautiful then I had imagined it. I am happy with the result.