Marin Shawl !

The 2nd travel project I took to New York was the Marin shawl.

Again I'm in awe of Ysolda's design prowess. The shawl is cleverly knitted so all those placed cables at the edges that creates the edging curves and the cables that make those beautiful 'X's are totally reversibly. Beautiful use of garter and rib here. The shawl was designed to be symmetrical, knitted from side to side although one side of mine is longer than the other as I wanted to use all of the precious cashmere.

close up of cable in shape of 'X'

Close up of cable that helps create an edge curve.

short rows that make the extra fabric that curves around the shoulders.

The yarn is Cashmere lace from Hedgehog fibres which is held double knitted in 3.5mm circulars.
I have purchased it few years ago in a 'Copper penny'. The name very much fits the colour. Rusty copper with teal/green bursts. Look at the close ups and marvel at the dye work.. Caroline knitted hers also in hedgehog cashmere- isn't her colours just striking?

 

 Totally recommend the pattern- it was a joy to knit.

The New York Crow Watlz !

The crow waltz shawl was in my queue as soon as it appeared on Loop's site. I even bought some old maiden aunt to knit the shawl version in purple and brown.

Loop's sample

This summer I went to visit a good friend of mine and going through her stash ( yes , this is what good friends do !) I noticed two gorgeous woolly skeins and could not ignore the call. Things could not get better when my friend wished her skeins gone from her stash :-)
 The more variegated one called metallurgy -greys blues and rust ,but I have no name for the grey with light purple tones. I could just envision how beautiful they would look together..

www.skeinyarn.com

I think the linen stitch pattern for the body of the shawl is perfect to use with variegated yarns. you get a woven effect, almost tweedy. The trick is not to knit the shawl too tight and in fact for all the rows that you slip stitches with the yarn at front you use larger circular needle than the one to purl the wrong sides. The fabric is airy and drapery as a result.

The lace edges are knitted first. I knew they are going to be a pain so for about a month I just knitted couple of repeats here and there. I knitted two bands and then grafted together to created a symmetry. I used 4 ply yarn and not sport so I added about 6-7 repeats more on each side to compensate. Then it is very easy to pick all the stitches through the slipped stitches of the lace repeats and knit and decrease until reaching the 'base' of the triangle .I took this shawl to New York and this was my easy project.



wrong side facing

Am very please with it- success !!