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.