Design A447 - Pinks, Blues and Black

For my final shawl using the Aran weight cotton I have chosen to use a range of pinks, a range of blues and all tied together with black, which is why I didn't want very dark blues in this shawl, as I doubt navy blue motifs would show up very well against the black.

In terms of how many motifs of each colour I was able to make from the leftovers and how many I made from the slightly larger amounts are as follows, in order from top left to the bottom right: 

Light wash = 4 motifs, Candyfloss pink = 4 motifs,  Light Ice Blue = 6 motifs

Medium pink = 12 motifs, Black = main, Rose = 11 motifs 

Light Jeans = 6 motifs, Petrol = 8 motifs, Plum = 13 motifs

Where possible I tried to match a similar shade/tone of blue to that in the pink range.

Its starting to look really effective but with the additional of the central motifs it is even more striking.

It reminds me a little like stained glass windows.

So now that I have made this one, I have just very very small oddments leftover, not even enough of anything to make a flower and so my kids have had what is leftover so they can add stripes or something to whatever they knit.

Design A447 - Grey and White

For this one, I am doing it more simply.  There really are only two shades of grey cotton available but that is OK because I will checkerboard the motifs across the shawl and use white as the main colour to make a classic looking shawl.  I had to buy the light grey to go with the larger amount of darker grey that I already had.

In terms of how many motifs of each colour I was able to make from the leftovers and how many I made from the slightly larger amounts are as follows, in order from left to right: 

White = main, Light Grey = 36 motifs,  Dark grey = 28 motifs

I did make a little mistake that I didn't notice until after I took this photograph and I quickly rectified the mistake and carried on.

Not colourful but still pretty.

Design SB188 in natural black Jacob wool

One more shawl of this design before I move onto something else.  This time I have chosen some natural black Jacob wool that I spun 4 years ago.  The fleece for it was sourced locally and you can read more about that here.  

This time, when I finished the shawl I had a lot of yarn remaining and so instead of finishing and then making a brooch, I lay it to one side, made the brooch and then came back to the shawl and added extra rows of pattern to the bottom edge so as to be able to use up all of this lovely handspun yarn.  This means that this shawl is slightly longer than the ones made in acrylic yarn.  Also, because this shawl is made from pure wool which has been processed carefully by hand for spinning and then spun by me it does mean that this shawl will be a lot more expensive than those made from acrylic yarn as there is an element of labour charges involved, as well as the price of the buying the fleece.

I use long strong cable ties to help form scallops when I am blocking any shawl that has a scalloped bottom edge.  Obviously I still need to use pins to keep it in shape and place but the cable ties mean I can use less pins and help create a smoother line.

Design SB188 in White Acrylic

My final shawl using the acrylic yarn I bought recently is the same again but this time in white.   This design works up quickly and I think is quite pretty.

The colour is off in the photo on the right hand side, its October and good natural light can be hard to find most days.  Artificial light can add all sorts of tones to photos.

Its really pretty in white, very bridal.

SB188 in Black Acrylic

Following on from making this design in bright yellow I have now made one in black.

I took the next two photos using my phone and I don't know why but it seems to have put a reddish tinge right in the centre of the photos (the photo on the right is zoomed in and only shows part of the original photo).  My old phone used to do the same and this is the first time that I've noticed this new phone doing that as well now. 😡

As you can see from these final photos taken with my Canon camera, it is a proper black.  Once again I made a flower brooch in the same yarn that can be used to fasten the shawl however you want to, doesn't have to join the edges together, you could bring it together higher up and have it just down from your shoulder or you could fix the brooch to a bag.  Wear it as you want.

Design SB188 in Mustard Yellow

I recently sold one of these designs in blue cotton, but the customer had previously asked if I could make it in black and so I searched to see what appropriate yarns were available but the customer went with the blue anyway.  I discovered that higher quality yarns in this thickness have sky rocketed in price since I made the blue one and would probably double the price of the finished item but I did find some acrylic yarn of the right thickness at a good price and so I bought some in 4 different colours with the purpose of making some more of this design.

These work up really quick and I made a giant flower brooch with the left-overs.

A516 in Powder blue

One more of this design before I move onto another for bit.  This is some powder blue 70% Silk/30% Cotton yarn by Rowan that is now discontinued and I like this as its nice and textured.

It wasn't until after I had finished making the shawl and laid it out to look at it that I noticed that two of the skeins must have been from a different dye lot from the third skein as there is a slight difference in depth of colour at the top of the shawl to that at the bottom and thankfully I have somehow used all the slightly darker yarn first and then the lighter last and the depth of colour change falls right on ridge between two pattern sets.  I'm glad it didn't work out as dark, light, dark as that would have produced stripes, but uneven stripes.  I also made a flower brooch for this one but its a different flower design as I didn't have enough yarn left for the other flower type that I've been making.

A516 in Grey Mohair

And its straight on with the next.  Another of A516 designs and again in Vintage Mohair, this time it's a lilac'y grey.

I done a lot more of the pattern repeats on this one as I have more of this yarn and this makes for a larger shawl.  I done another of the same flower brooches that will be supplied with the shawl when it goes in my Etsy shop.

A516 in Kingfisher Mohair

No sooner have I finished my first shawl in a while than I am on with the next one using some brightly coloured vintage Mohair yarn in shade Kingfisher.  I love the colour of this.

This is the second of a newish design, the first one being done April 2019 and its a simple pattern but really pretty.  I decided to make a simple crochet flower brooch with some of the leftover yarn and this will be supplied with the shawl when it finally makes it to my shop.

B517 - A new design full of diamonds and purls...

My youngest went back to school on 7th September and my eldest started her 'A' Level Maths along with her specialised course that is the equivalent of 3 'A' Levels at her chosen place of further education on 16th September and I wasted no time in getting on and getting back to being creative.

To begin with, I kicked off with some lovely bulky soft 55% Cotton/45% Acrylic yarn from Rowan.  I think I need something that will work up quickly and provide me with new stuff to add to my shop as quickly as possible.

I chose a new design, that means one that I've not made before not one that is newly published, and as I realised that I was running out yarn I had to leave one row off the end and I still had a very panicky game of yarn chicken and you can see in the photo below that I had less than 6 inches left as I done the final cast off stitch.  

And now for the final product photos...

Design LF433 in Pink and Green

I started this way back on 4th March and just been doing a bit of work on this when I can and when I feel like it.  Covid-19 Lockdown is taking its toll on my crafting as everyone has been at home.  I don't have any issues with supplies, I have enough to last me for decades if need be, my issue is with a lack of motivation.

My colours for this one are Gold, Cerise and Pale Green Twilley's Goldfingering.

First up are a couple of work in progress photos.

And now for a couple of finished item photos.

Another new design - Design A516 in green tweedy yarn

Another new design and another one that is fairly easy to adjust in size.  I used up some tweedy olive green wool that I bought.  I don't know the brand but it is 100% wool.  Not the softest yarn but its not too bad and despite increasing the needle size I have still managed to produce a fairly stiff fabric, which should soften with time and wear and is incredibly warm.

I took the product photos in two different ways as this shawl is versatile but I think the wedding setting is really nice.

Yep, its another Design A2 - Salmon Mohair

I decided to use up the leftovers from a Custom shawl next, I bought a little extra whilst I could just in case of any miscalculations or emergencies such as bad or damaged yarn, seeing as this is vintage yarn and almost impossible to get hold of.  It was a miracle I was able to find any.

This is Charisma Fashion Mohair from Colours by Adrian of Edinburgh in shade Salmon and its 78% Mohair, 13% Wool, 9% Nylon.

Its a lovely, pretty yarn, but its Mohair and does shed but not as bad as some that I've used in the past.

Once again, the product photos were taken a number of months after I made the shawl as I had a lot going on and I'd put so much weight on that I couldn't fit into the wedding dress so I had to lose weight before I could do the photo shoot.

Another Design A2 - Colinette Fire

Carrying on with my Design A2 roll, I have picked a single skein of Colinette Mohair in shade Fire and this yarn has been discontinued some time.  Its 78% Mohair, 13% Wool, 9% Nylon.  Again, I used all of the skein.  I made this so fast that I didn't take any progress photos, nor did I take any when I washed and blocked it.

These product photos were taken several months after I made the item.

Bluefaced Leicester - Design A2

I've decided to use up some of my widow skeins on some more A2 Designs.  This one is 100% Bluefaced Leicester aran weight yarn from West Yorkshire Spinners and was spun at their Yorkshire Mill.  Its really lovely and soft.

I just kept knitting until I ran out of yarn.

It was a fair few months before I got around to photographing it.

A little bit of A2

Design A2 is a good design for using up single skeins of aran weight yarn or left-overs from a larger project.  It is a versatile design that is really adjustable once you have the main part of the shawl worked, after that it is dependent on what yarn you left as to how big it can become.

I have a few single skeins of varying length of aran weight yarn that I can't really do anything else with.  Maybe I could look to see if I could work it with something else and make something with stripes but these are completely different texture and colour to anything else that I have, in most cases, and so a versatile pattern like this is a lifesaver.

I have a single skein of Rowan Summer Tweed in shade Sprig.  Its not a huge skein and is quite textured.  Its 70% Silk, 30% Cotton and I have 120m of it.

Ok, I was just one row short of the main part of the pattern but it has made a cute little scarf, ideal if you don't like much bulk.

Another new design - D35

This design is supposed to be worked using double knit yarn but I have chosen to use some worsted weight yarn, which is a little heavier, so I have used a slightly larger hook.  I could have used a slightly bigger one still, which would have made a slightly bigger shawl, but its not made a stiff fabric.

The yarn has been discontinued for some time, its 56% Cotton, 44% Nylon and produces an unusual effect.