Friday 13 April 2012

The beautiful sand and sea shawl


I'm getting quite addicted to Alana Dakos designs- see gnarled oak cardigan and the sugar and cream cowl. The sand and sea shawl jumped the queue as soon as I saw the one my friend Caroline had knitted. She used only one yarn for the whole shawl, one strand for the body and double the strand for the edging. The yarn is hedgehog merino silk lace in one of the recent clubs. After I was raving on and on about it she made a gift of her 38 grams left overs.




I knew there is not enough for the whole shawl so I've knitted the body with the gifted yarn but the edging was done in a neutral cream colours ,again merino silk lace from hedgehog fibres (colour birch).



The colours are truer in those close up photos. The gifted yarn is truly amazing-beautiful shades of green , lilac and yellowy brown.

I have slightly modified the body to accommodate as much yarn as possible , so I just progressed slower with the short rows.





I'm getting lots of compliments about this one, truly pleased ! :-)

Wednesday 11 April 2012

Yarning in Ibiza !

We had a cheap break in Ibiza. We were early enough in the season not to encounter the dreaded clubbists so the break was peaceful with quite enough days of sunshine. We rented a modest flat in San Antonio, five minutes from the beach so our days were filled out with plenty of walks along the beach, pass all the cafes , going out and filling our bellies with sea food. Plenty of time near the pool and the sea, watching perfect sunsets, you get my drift.
 


For my holiday knitting I took an on going project- a lovely pattern - Devonshire which was published in the twist collective spring summer 2011. I was tempted to start a new project but felt sorry for Devonshire , for some reason its been dragging a bit as I've started and finished two shawls in between. The sand and sea shawl and my Erato in which I did manage to type a blogpost.


This is the first sleeve of devonshire. The back and fronts are done and are currently swimming in a nice warm bath as I type, preparing for a nice stretch on the blocking board. The yarn, blush in sport weight was bought from skein queen and is very nice indeed to work with.

My family found one yarn shop in San Antonio and happily came running to announce the find- they know me so well :-) I made one glance and did not even bother going in. Yes - full of squeaky (acrylic )yarn..


On Saturday I noticed a market  close to the sea , near one of the big fountains, and what a joy to see. Lots of stalls demonstrating hand crafting;







I stood by three elderly ladies in traditional dresses and watched their spinning. I saw one of the ladies had in her basket a finished small skein , approx 20 grams. I asked the lady how much that is. She grinned at me with a toothless smile and a 'enty euros' came out of her mouth . She meant twenty. I thought I looked very much like a tourist that day..