FO Friday - Spring Shawl

It's Friday, the sun is shining (well it might do later, if it feels like it) and I have a new FO:

My new Hitchhiker shawl in some fabulous yarn from The Love of Yarn. I got my sticky little paws on this yarn courtesy of the Trial Club for The Golden Skein and have been wondering how best to use it in a project.

The colours are a vibrant mixture of yellows, golds, greens, blues and greys. Now yellow isn't really my thing and I can count on one hand the number of projects I have made which contain yellow - a check of my 280-odd Ravelry projects confirms this anti-yellow bias - but I Love, Love, Love this shawl.

The colours work really well together and although I did get some pooling (although the changing stitch count helped to minimise it) I think it looks fabulous in the finished item and is really very wearable. It isn't quite as long as my other Hitchhiker (I think I got 34 'teeth') but the ends are long enough to wrap comfortably and I'm very happy with it.

Note to self: next time put makeup on before taking FO photo.

The Spring KAL is continuing over on the group , with some fabulous finished items on show. Do pop over and check out what others are doing and feel the Sping Love.

WIP Wednesday: Spring KAL

Over on my Ravelry group I am hosting a Spring KAL. A fun relaxed KAL with very few rules and lots of happy spring-like knitting.

It doesn't need to be one of my patterns, it can be socks, shawls, mitts, even a full scale sweater if you have the stamina.

Just cast on anytime from now onwards and finish before May 30th. Post your cast on post and project pictures over in the group thread to qualify for one of the three prizes and tag your project with #springiscoming.

You can also join in on Instagram with the hashtag #springKAL

As for my spring project. I have chosen a Hitchhiker in some beautiful yarn from the Golden Skein..

A delicious blend of wool and bamboo, nothing says spring to me more than these vibrant yellows and greens.

Happy days.

A new shawl

No sooner is one shawl off the needles then I'm powerless to resist casting on another.

It didn't help that one of my favourite shawl designers - Sue Lazenby has a new e-book out and no sooner had I caught sight of her latest shawl - The Lichen & Moss Shawl from her Celtic Woodland Collection - then the Paypal purchase has whizzed through and I was hunting for the perfect yarn.

This collection (a bargain at £12.50) had 5 lovely patterns for shawls, cowls and a hat. All in the fabulous textured stitch patterns that Sue is becoming known for.

The shawl comes in two sizes - a 'standard' shawl size which uses 100g 4ply yarn and a larger size which looks wonderfully wrappable and which requires 200g 4ply. No prizes for guessing which one I wanted to make.

I found 2 skeins of Knitting Goddess 4ply sock yarn in a lovely semi-solid caramel/beige colourway and I was away:

Most of this was knit during the wildly exciting Six Nations rugby on Saturday but I'm loving the pattern and am planning to knit on it a little more today after I have done my 'chores'.

Zilver - an FO

This months delivery from The Golden Skein really fired my enthusiasm and I knew that I had to cast on something Right Now, with at least one of these gorgeous skeins

I chose this wonderful 4ply sock yarn from The Yarn Garden. It's a deliciously soft silk/wool blend called Miss Wilmott's Ghost and it is an amazingly subtle blends of greys. Now I am a complete sucker for a good grey or neutral at the best of times but this yarn was truely wonderful to work with.

I chose a pattern which would have a lot of stocking stitch to show off the wonderful shades of grey - pardon the expression - and I plumped for Zilver, from the very talented Lisa Mutch. (Whispers - and it's free)

Sometimes you have that perfect synchronicity of yarn and pattern and I'm pleased to say that this was the case here.

I cast on 5th March, 2014 and a little over a week later I have a lovely, versatile, silky, grey shawl to wear to work today.

I must admit that in this photo it was still slightly damp from blocking and has an end to weave in - I tucked it out of sight for the photo. But, right after the small peeps have had breakfast and in that 5 minute lull before we leave the house I will sew it in and wear my Zilver with pride on this misty spring morning.