Summer Berries Broomstick Lace Scarf

I have a couple of skeins/part used hand-wound balls of Colinette Mohair in shade Summer Berries.  I wound them into cakes, when it then became obvious that there was a lot of difference between the skeins.  This is normal and expected with Colinette yarns and there are even instructions on the band that states this fact and to alternate between two or more skeins when working with them.  One is very very light, one is dark and then the part skein is even darker than the second one!    

The pattern that I am working has a standard length of 118 rows, which is what I worked.  I worked only with the two darkest skeins and alternated between them every two pattern repeats. The yarn is 78% Mohair, 13% Wool, 9% Nylon

I didn't take any work-in-progress photos but I did hold it up against the light for an interesting stained glass effect.

Aqua Mohair Broomstick Lace Scarf

My next scarf is again some vintage Mohair but this time only one of the 5 balls have a label so I have no idea if they are all the same dyelot but they are Luxury Mohair by Chevy.

I am sticking with making broomstick lace scarves for now.  The yarn is 78% Mohair, 13% Wool, 9% Nylon.  The pattern that I am working has a standard length of 118 rows and this is what I worked.

Once again I didn't take any work-in-progress photos and this colour is just beautiful.

Red Mohair Broomstick Lace Scarf

I've decided that I need to use up some of the smaller amounts of vintage yarns to make smaller and quicker to make items that still fit within the lace theme of the shop but that might be more marketable and at a lower price point.  I have 10 balls of Charisma 83% Mohair Rich but 7 balls have one dye lot and the other three have 2 different dye lot's between them.  

Using the 3 rogue balls with odd dye lots I decided to make a broomstick lace scarf, putting the two balls with the same dyelot on the ends and the other ball in the middle.  The yarn is 83% Mohair, 9% Wool, 8% Nylon.  The pattern that I am working has a standard length of 118 rows but I worked 134 rows to use up as much of the yarn as possible and to make sure that the same number of rows were worked for each of the balls of yarn with the same dye lot so that if there is any slight difference in colour those sections would be equal.

I didn't take any work-in-progress photos.  I must get back into the habit of doing that!

Design LF433 - Pretty in Baby Pink & Purple

I started making this as soon as I finished making the last one, on 25th April 2023.

All of the threads used on this project are taken from one dye lot per colour. I didn't take any work-in-progress photos at all and I have no idea how I forgot to do that, other than the fact that my father-in-law passed away the first week of May and I was busy helping my mother-in-law and husband with all that that entails.

Design LF433 - Pretty in Purple and Cerise

I started making this back in September 2023, using this project as something to work on when I had to sit in a café and while away an hour or so when my youngest first started college and was only in for 2 hours on a Friday morning and it wasn't worth driving home to turn around and come back again.  He was in for longer the rest of the week and also at times when I had to sit and wait at appointments and such.  I don't have to sit and wait now so I've decided to finish making it a bit quicker.

As what often happens on these projects using the vintage Twilley's Goldfingering, specifically with the thread for the flower centres and/or the flower petals, I ended up having to use two different dye lots for the pale gold centres so I made sure to checkerboard them across the entire shawl so that if there is any noticeable difference it then becomes a design feature. If I have to use more than one dye lot for the main colour, I tend to use one for the crochet and the other dye lot for the fringing or a mix of both in the fringing.

Design LF433 - Pretty in Orange and Lime

The day after I finished the last shawl, I started making this one.  Unfortunately, I didn't calculate things correctly, and I ran out of lime green before I was able to make enough flowers.  I put in a lot of effort, searching the internet and trying a couple of alternatives, but there was nothing around that was even close in colour to this particular shade of lime.  That's what happens when you create things using vintage materials.  Twilley's stopped making this thread in all but seven standard colours: white, black, silver, light gold, gold, bright red, and bright green, years ago. The company went out of business entirely in February 2020, after operating for approximately 100 years.

The upshot is that I have made one of my usual shawls, but this one is a little smaller, one entire row of motifs less than normal, and therefore at a lower price point.

Design LF433 - Kingfisher Blue

For my next shawl I have picked one of the project boxes that has been in a cupboard for some time.  I have a small stack of small boxes that contains Twilley's Goldfingering that I have put together to work into shawls.  This one is pale gold, light pink and kingfisher blue.

I've not been taking work in progress photos lately but I did get a couple, one of the project box, one of the flower, one as I was sewing in the ends and some as the sun bounced on my work and I couldn't resist as its really difficult to show off how sparkly these shawls are, to capture the sparkle is almost impossible usually.

This one is similar in colour combination to another shawl that I made but it is different, that one was silver, pink mix and teal.

Design LF433 - Pretty in Red (or the Ladybird shawl)

I started making this back in January and then I must have put it to one side after completing the flowers for some reason before picking it up again last week and joining them all together with the main colour. 

I have used Twilley's Goldfingering in shades WG4/004 light gold, WG31/031 black and a couple of different dye lots of WG38/038 red.

I didn't make any notes nor did I seem to take any work-in-progress photos other than a couple where I am preparing to add the fringing.  My eldest daughter said that I had made the sofa look like a Christmas candy cane.  I did run out of space and so I used the back of a couple of cushions on the floor.  The reason I laid them out like this was because whilst I was able to use one dye lot for the shawl I had to use a couple of different dye lots of red when I got to the fringing part and so I cut the lengths and divided them across the number of tassels and then the other dye lots were cut and added in equal amounts to each tassel.  This means that all of the tassels are made from mixed dye lots but it won't be obvious because they all contain mixed dye lots.

I think the final shawl looks a bit like a ladybird.

Design LF433 - Pretty in Purple

I've been working on this one a little at a time, when I can fit a bit of time in to work on it, like that time between getting home from the school run and having to start cooking the evening meal.  I've recently learned that Thomas B Ramsden, the parent company that owns yarn brands such as Twilleys, Robin, Wendy and a couple of others, went into Administration in April of 2020.  This could be a financial and legal reaction to Covid-19, to protect the company from outstanding financial burdens in the short term whilst they are unable to continue business due to Covid-19 or it could be that they are genuinely struggling and are having to close the business after over 100 years.

This one is similar too another one that I have in my shop that has light purple main colour and dark petals, but I have used slightly different purple shades in this one.

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.

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.

Pretty in Navy - Design LF433

So, I pretty much left this at the beginning of December after making a start on it but I did manage to complete all the flower petals before I picked it up again in earnest on 5th February.  When I did come back to it the first thing I had to do was sew all the ends in from doing the petals.  That is one of the worst jobs when making a shawl like this, all the yarn ends, never ending yarn ends.

Finished and waiting for a soak and block.

I finished this but didn't get round to taking proper photos for several months, certainly not until after I had purchased new backdrops in the summer of 2019 so I've popped back to add the photos rather than create a new blog post just to do that.

Another completed custom order - Design A197

Back in November I sold a shawlette to a customer and she contact me soon afterwards to ask if I could make another, exactly the same using the same yarn, but larger as it perfectly matches a Mantilla (Chapel Veil) that she intends to wear to her daughters first Holy Communion in May 2019 and that she wants to keep the shawlette already purchased so her daughter can wear it.

This posed me a bit of a problem as most of the yarns I use are either hand spun or vintage and in most cases if I don't have any left it is impossible to get more.  In this case it was some vintage Mohair called Charisma Luxury Fashion Mohair by Colours by Adrian of Edinburgh in shade Salmon.

I searched every where I could think of online and found nothing other than some very similar mohair and mohair-type yarns on Ebay and so I bought a few bits and pieces that might be a good match, which when they arrived they turned out not be such a good colour match after all.  Whilst waiting for some of these yarns to arrive I did finally manage to track some of the exact same yarn down, more expensive than what I paid for it originally but then the original yarn did come via Ebay, I do love a bargain, but this was coming from a shop that sells vintage yarns so is bound to be more expensive anyway.

After a little bit of back and forth regarding sizes and prices etc the order was placed and paid for with the instruction of not to rush, enjoy Christmas and to get it to her by the end of January if I could.  Brilliant, that gives me plenty of time to get it done.

Side by side of before and after washing and blocking.

My daughter modelling it for me to show off the size and pattern.  So pretty.

I've started another of my favourite vintage shawls - LF433

I've started making another one, I love them, people looking at my shop don't seem to take a look at them though, maybe its the rubbish photos.  One day I will be able to do something about that, I'm sure I will.

Anyway, light gold, turquoise and midnight blue.  I'm having to use a different brand of vintage thread for the petals this time but they are almost identical threads, same thickness, same length, same fibre content and probably made at the same factory with just different labels added to them for the different companies that sell them.

I have made a start, I have all the centres done and started on the flowers but I have to leave this for a little while as I have a custom order coming in and loads to do before Christmas so this will be finished in the New Year.  Sorry for the rubbish photo below, my phone is not the best for taking photos.

Teal and Pink - Design LF433

I've made another of one of my favourite vintage patterns using the same vintage thread and this time I'm using silver for the flower centres, pink multi for the petals and teal for the main body.

Unfortunately I ran out of the pale pink multi with one full flower and half flowers to go.  I searched Ravelry for other people with this thread, only two people had it and I messaged both of them. Luckily one of them was a really lovely lady who only had a small amount left but she sent it to me anyway and refused to take any money for it.  Almost there, just three half flowers to complete and I ran out again.  I still hadn't heard from the other lady, never did get a response so I had to improvise.  Taking a plain pale pink of the same vintage thread I combined it with some blue and gold metallic sewing thread I had and made something very similar, similar enough that once finished with the main colour separating the flowers you have to look hard to see the difference.

In the photo of the three half flowers above, the top left is the one that I made up using the vintage thread and some metallic sewing thread and the other two, can't remember which is which, but they are made from the vintage thread I had and the vintage thread that the lady gave me, obviously from different dye lots but not massively different.

What a difference blocking makes to a piece of crochet.

And the final piece in all its glory.

LF433 - Remember Me

My youngest daughter, who is on the Autistic Scale, has recently had to attend special workshop groups to teach her methods of how to cope with difficult situations that may be stressful, frustrating or emotional.  People with Autism really struggle with these things.  Whilst she was in the workshop group I sat in a lovely quiet part of the waiting area and crocheted, or at least I tried to crochet as much as I could but there was one woman, one of the workers that I will refer to as "gas bag", that kept talking to me every week incessantly about how I think my daughter is doing and probing into my feelings, she never shut up and never took the hint until the last week when I was very abrupt with her.  There is only so much a person can say on a subject and I'd said all I needed to by the end of the second week, which was weeks ago!

So, the project that I was working on, or trying to work on, was another Twilley's Goldfingering 1970's shawl and I kept this project just for the group sessions which meant that I started making the flower centres way back on 28th February and I started adding the petals on the 5th week of the group, getting 3 flowers complete in about an hour and a half.  The last week, the one where I got peace and quiet, I got 10 flowers completed in the same time, which shows how much of a distraction this gas bag was!

I am using all vintage threads for this, vintage silver for the flower centres, vintage red for the petals and vintage black for the main body.

It wasn't until I was crocheting with the black that I noticed that two of the flowers had 9 petals each and not the 8 that was needed so I had to undo the petals and correct them.  No doubt these are two of the three that I done when gas bag was talking to me.

I refer to this particular shawl as "remember me" because it reminds me of Remembrance Sunday and the parades that go with that.

White Mohair Old Fashioned Cape - Design D194

No rest for the wicked, straight on with the next capelet.  I chose some vintage white mohair for this one.  I seem to be favouring the handspun or the mohair lately, I don't know why that is.

This is some vintage Mohair yarn called Tahiti by Lister (UK) Ltd from around 1976.  Its double-knit weight and is 67% Mohair, 28% Wool, 5% Nylon.  Its not as high quality as I usual buy but at 67% Mohair its pretty close.

The only problem with working with mohair are the fly-away fibres that seem to shed as you work which make me sneeze and makes my eyes itch a little.  This one is lightweight compared to the green one, the yarn is nowhere near as dense.

Such a pretty capelet needs pretty buttons and I've chosen some silver coloured diamante/rhinestone buttons that I bought a few years ago specifically for wedding capes.

Dark Red-Black Lace Shawlette - Design A197

That was such a quick little shawlette to make that I have sorted out the yarn to make two more.  This one is some vintage mohair with sparkles running through it.

This is Paris by Wendy Yarns, long since discontinued, and its 81% Mohair, 11% Wool, 8% Nylon and the colour is called Antibes.

As I was knitting it up the colours reminded me of something and then I realised what it was.  About 15 years ago I worked at Birmingham International Airport for Alpha Retail, the company that ran the Duty Free shops, and although I worked primarily behind the scenes in the offices I knew most of the products that we sold.  It reminded me of Dior's Fahrenheit bottle, not for long though, it soon changed into a more stripey pattern.

Because of the long colour changes in the yarn it made it difficult when it came time to join in the next ball of yarn and I had to wind yarn off and cut and join in the right place to try to keep the colour sequence flowing.  I've done that before with a baby jacket!

The photos really don't do this shawl justice and its so much nicer in real life.