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 !! 

Pop spots photoshoot !

 

Last Saturday I went for another London knitting tour with my wonderful Wendy. Our first stop was the best yarn store in London- loop. Not too far for Angel underground stop, we arrived when the store opened at 11:00 am and stayed there way over couple of hours. This was my first time in Loop new premises and I appreciated the bigger space, range of yarn- all lace and 4 ply are on ground floor , chunkier is up a level. who is thinking about recession?? nobody in loop I can assure you.. Those yarn fumes, I swear ..
We also stopped at Liberty (for the buttons, fabrics and oh to die for silk scarves..) and John Lewis haberdashery department to examine the new yarns for Kim Hargreaves new book- Spirit.
Another stop was at good old dear Patricia Roberts, I wore her snow flake cardigan and she absolutely adored it !

That is Loop sample of pop spots you can see hanging there in the background - a lovely version knitted in Isager with three different colours- just love the lilac with the brown and grey..

 

 

 

Well my Pop Spots shawl is finished, that edging took forever but is well worth the effort. I made sure it was thoroughly dry after blocking because those alpaca fibers shrink dramatically.

It is just the perfect shawl for spring. Yellow to bring those warm rays of sunshine we all missed in the winter. Its woolly enough for the early morning and late evenings. I love the subtle combination of the yellow and beige- elegant and cheerful.

Yes all those logs are for next winter..:)

Super, super pleased !!