A new design - L515

I'm trying a new design for a narrow scarf like shawl using some of my own handspun Shetland Wool yarn.  I love the design, although it is quite complex and time consuming and I am disappointed that I didn't get to finish the pattern as it was written because the required meterage of yarn had been converted wrongly so I had to make a decision on what to do based on roughly how much yarn I had left.  I had about 20m of yarn left to complete 18 rows of beaded lace plus the beaded cast off.  Well, that just isn't going to happen is it!  The pattern said it required 250m, the yarn I had had 360m in it and the correct actual meterage required is 465m.

Okey dokey then, straight into a beaded picot cast off to give it a pretty top edge.  I used Toho beads size 8 in shade 177: Trans Rainbow Smokey Topaz and it took a total of 436 beads.

Oh no, not another one! - Design F213 - Golden Carrot

Back in September I spun this yarn that I had dyed using plant dyed from the boiled up carrot tops from the homegrown carrots.  This will be the last shawl of this design that I make, for a while at least.

This is really sparkly and I used the same beads as last time, Toho size 6 in shade 83, Metallic Brown Iris.

My eldest daughter doing the modelling again and the shawl is certainly a one-of-a-kind.

Not another shawl of the same design, yup! - Design F213 Mink

I've enjoyed spinning but I'm happy to be back knitting again, another shallow triangular shawl of the same pattern as last time but this time I am using some of my own handspun that I spun a couple of years ago.

Its really nice and soft , its a blend of Corriedale Wool and Tussah Silk.  I chose to use some brown beads that I've used before, Toho size 6 in shade 83, Metallic Brown Iris.

I love the dramatic effect of blocking, how a scrumpled up piece of knitting becomes the most beautiful smooth and drapey shawl.

My daughter is modelling for me again and as always the shawl will be available in the shop until someone buys it.

Robots in the Freezer - Design F213

Following on from the success of my last shawl I decided to make another one using another sock yarn, again Superwash Sock 80/20 from Spun Right Round, this time in shade "Robots in the Freezer" and its 80% Superwash Merino, 20% Nylon.

I couldn't wait to wind this yarn to see how colourful it was and if there were any particularly large splodges of colour.  I was very happy to discover that this skein was one of the paler ones that I have seen in this colourway.  Choosing the beads was quite easy this time and I settled on Toho size 6 in shade 181 Rainbow Crystal Tanzanite, which are dark blue with a rainbow shine to the surface of the glass.

These knit up quite quickly, about 4 or 5 days, depending on how many hours you can spend knitting but I knit whilst the kids are in school so I do have limited hours as I don't knit once they are home.

Hopefully my photos are showing off the colour of the beads.

My eldest daughter is modelling for me again.

Available to purchase from my Etsy store until someone snaps it up as its another one-of-a-kind.

Living in a Bubble - Design F213

Every now and again I see people selling off yarn and I try my best to resist as I have so much already but on the rare occasion I give in, I can't help it, it calls to me.  So I've recently bought an amount of yarn that is designated as "sock yarn".  It is perfect for making socks as it contains an amount of nylon to make it more hard wearing but the beauty of it is is that you don't have to make socks with it, you can make other things with it.  I thought I would make some smallish shawls, the kind that you can wear as a scarf, a large neckerchief kind of thing.

I have made this design before way back in 2013.

The yarn is Superwash Sock 80/20 by Spun Right Round and is 80% Merino Wool, 20% Nylon.

Its a top down shawl, so the beaded edge is worked last.  I was thinking about using some dark blue beads but in the end I settled on some Toho size 6 beads in shade 507 Higher Metallic Iris Green, which aren't actually green but more of a rainbow bead with an overall green tone.  They are difficult to describe but as you can see from the photos, the multi-colours of the beads really work with the multi-colours in the yarn, which isn't as blue as it looks in some of the photos that were taken with my phone.

The photos below are more true to colour, these were taken with my actual camera, not with my phone, which tends to distort the colours somewhat.  I've decided that if I make any more of these, which I am bound to do, then I will add an extra bead to the centre point as it only calls for 4 in the pattern and I think it would look better if it had 5 so that it is closer in looks to those either side of it.

My eldest daughter agreed to model the shawl for me, she's just turned 15 and becoming a young woman and is the same height as me now.

As ever, you will find this in my Etsy store until someone buys it and then it will be gone as it is one-of-a-kind.

Shetland/Teeswater Shawl - Design F29

Staying with my plan to recreate shawls that I have made in the past and priced incorrectly my next shawl is the same design as another that I had a few problems making years ago.  This time I am not making it with mohair but with some of my own hand spun Shetland/Teeswater wool.

My first attempt at making this shawl was way back in 2010 and you can read about that here.

The yarn is some that I spun a couple of years ago in 2015 and you can read all about the fleece, where it came from and how I spun the yarn here.

I know that I want to bead this shawl and there are a few different ways to place the beads on this design, each giving a different look to the finished shawl.  The last time I made this shawl I only beaded the edging as I felt that the yarn was pretty enough and didn't need beads elsewhere.  This time I decided to place beads along the stems of each leaf as well as on the edging of the shawl.  I did get a little stuck on deciding on the colour of the beads though.  Decisions... decisions...  no, can't decide so placed an order for more beads in the two colours that look great with this yarn.  Toho beads, of course, they're the best for knitting in my opinion, ordered some silver lined crystal and some gold lined rainbow crystal as I don't have enough of either to complete this design and I have a lot of this yarn so will no doubt be needing more in the future anyway.

For this particular shawl I have decided to go with the size 6 gold lined rainbow crystal beads (shade 994) as these look very much like "rose gold", which is a very popular colour with brides right now.

With 7 beads per stem and 72 leaves in the design that is 504 beads and I think it looks fabulous depicting the stem like this.  When it came to the edging I decided to bead that in the same way as I did the previous version and that used 25 beads per section.  There were 17 sections so that's another 425 beads bringing my bead total to 929.  I really loved making this shawl and will probably be making another one at some time in the future.

Passionate Beaded Lace - Design L323

I have been wanting to use this yarn for a long time but was in two minds about using it to make something for my shop following the very big public outcry about how some producers in China keep their Angora rabbits in tiny wire cages, stacked on top of each other so that the rabbit cannot run around, the wire cuts into their feet and food and excrement drop onto them from cages above them.  When they harvest the fleece they literally rip the hair from the rabbit, causing severe pain and making it bleed.

Whilst this may be true of some producers, lets face it there are immoral rogue traders in every industry that only focus on profit and don't give a damn about welfare of people, animals or the environment, this is not true of all producers.

Being a Pagan, a lover of animals and the environment I am mindful of where I source all of my materials.  I want the best quality that I can get but I also want materials that are produced in a way that does not harm animals or the environment.

I bought this yarn, and a couple of other colours in the same yarn, from a lady in the UK that looked after her Angora bunnies like they were her children.  They had huge pens in which they could run around, inside pens for bad weather and night time and outside pens for daytime and good weather and they got to feel the grass under their feet and get some sunshine.  Unfortunately, since I bought my yarn her health took a bad turn and she has a debilitating painful chronic illness that is not curable but is manageable but she no longer produces yarn.  I know that her family were helping with the bunnies, making sure that their numbers did not increase but making sure that they were happy and well cared for.

Angora bunnies coats are constantly growing and moulting, like a cat or a dog's coat does and it requires regular brushing to prevent matting.  They were handled daily and their coats get brushed carefully whilst they sat on her lap nibbling at carrots.  She then removed what had been collected in the brush and this is what she spun and dyed once she had  collected enough of it.

The yarn is 100% Angora rabbit in laceweight, each skein being 50g/400m and the colours is "Passionate" which is a blue-purple with pink streaks.  I decided to have another go at making the shawl that took me two years to make and challenged myself not to take that long this time!  I picked beads to represent the colours in the yarn as best as I could, blue with a touch of pink, and so they are Size 8 Toho round seed beads in shade 168: Trans-Rainbow Light Sapphire.

Starting on 16th November 2015 I used the same bead placement as last time, adding one to each of the diamond centres of the border and between the two rose leaves in the centre panel

I finished on 21st March 2016, used 248 beads and all but 5g of the yarn.  The photos really do not do the shawl justice as it is beautiful blue-purple, which is difficult to capture the exact colour.  It is so lightweight but warm too and floats like a dream.

Lilac Beaded Lace Shawl - Design L7

I wanted to make another spectacular shawl as I've not done any fine lace knitting for a while.  I chose a lovely lilac lace weight yarn that I got from Solstice Yarns, which is 50% Baby Suri Alpaca, 30% Merino and 20% Silk.  Suri alpaca is the rarer breed of alpacas, the one with the incredibly long hair, as opposed to the normal, fluffy, Huacaya alpaca that you are probably more familiar with.

I loved making the heavily beaded scalloped shawl that I made with my own hand-spun Shetland wool so much that I am going to make it again using this yarn and Size 8 Toho round seed beads in shade 928 Rainbow Rosaline Opaque.  I started knitting on 7th September.

I took lots of work-in-progress photos so you can see the shawl growing.

I finished this on 4th November 2015.  The pictured below show before soaking and blocking and during the blocking process.  Blocking really makes a difference to the finished item, especially so with lace shawls.

The alpaca/wool/silk blend is so lightweight and drapes beautifully.  There are 5,083 beads on this shawl and the beads weigh more than the yarn does.  I used 68g of yarn and the shawl weighed 185g, meaning that the beads weighed 117g.

Anemone Merino Shawl - Design W187

Still staying with my own hand-spun yarn I enjoyed making the leaf edged shawl so much that I decided to make it again but this time with 100% Merino Wool that I hand-spun in 2012.  This time I adjusted the pattern slightly to use up all of this yarn so its slightly different in size to the Peacock one and I used 69 Size 6 Toho seed beads in shade 21 Silver lined crystal.  I started work on this on 11th May and finished it on 13th May 2015.

The beads don't show up all that much but do add a little something.  It was difficult deciding on what colour beads to use and I did consider getting some in a blackcurrant purple kind of colour but then figured that these wouldn't necessarily show up, given the amount of different shades of pinks and purples in the yarn.

Want to know how I made the yarn for this shawl?  Just click Anemone Merino

Peacock Merino Shawl - Design W187

Keen to knit with more of my own hand-spun yarn again I couldn't resist the soft squishiness of some Peacock coloured Merino Silk wool that I spun up in May 2013.  Keeping to a simple pattern with a beaded lace edge was perfect for this yarn, which is a worsted weight yarn and is 80% Merino Wool and 20% Silk.   The beads are Size 6 Toho round seed beads in shade 507 Higher Metallic Iris Green.

I cast on for this shawl on 27th April and the shawl is knit sideways, starting with a few stitches, increasing for the back and then decreasing again at the other end.  The beads were added one at a time over the individual stitches and I used 75 beads in total.  The shawl is adjustable in size by increasing or decreasing the number of pattern repeats in the middle section and I used up as much yarn as I could from the skein that I had spun as I hate having lots of left-overs that can't be used in their entirety to make something else.

It was a little crumpled when it came off the needles on 30th April 2015 but I always soak and block my shawls anyway and this made a huge difference.

Very happy with the bead colour choice.  Not too obvious but adds just enough to make the pattern pop and just look at that leaf definition now.  Wonderful!

Want to know how I made the yarn for this shawl?  Just click Peacock Merino Silk

Quilting Stitch Shawl - Design F310

I just had to make one of these fabulous eye-catching shawls.  Technically its not lace but there are eyelet lace stitches in the main body of the shawl and that is good enough for me.  Worked bottom up using two contrasting yarns and adding beads at the intersections of the quilt stitch section.  The yarn I used is Sirdar Denim Tweed Double Knitting in shades 501 (dark colour) and 623 (light colour), which is 60% acrylic, 25% cotton, 15% wool and I also used 312 size 6 glass beads in a rainbow raspberry colour.  I don't know what brand these beads are but they are not Toho.

I started knitting the ruffle at the bottom on 26th January and that was a boring laborious knit I can tell you.  It felt like it was never going to end as it took me two days just to knit that and a further 2 days to knit the two-colour beaded section.  Apologies for my ugly face being in the pictures, I took them late at night using the camera on my laptop.  The beaded quilted stitch section was quite puckered up/egg box looking during the knitting.

I finished knitting this on 3rd February, soaked and blocked it which really defined the beaded quilt stitch section.  I love the contrast in this design, so different to anything else.

Little Love Shawlette - Design S145

I know I was planning on working through my thickest yarns first, and I will, but I am itching to make something with some of my own hand-spun Alpaca.  I found the perfect little shawlette that should leave just a small amount of leftover yarn.  I ordered in some beads for the project too, size 8 Toho round seed beads in shade 2110 Silver lined milky light topaz.  I began this project on 6th March.  The lace border is knitted first and I added beads in as I worked.  You then pick up and knit the edge stitches and work in short rows from the middle, gradually working more and more stitches from the each end.  I also added beads to the picot cast off edge and used 270 beads in total on the shawlette.

It was a little crumpled when it came of the needles but not as bad as full lace pattern shawls.  The lace edge design didn't really do anything and until I soaked and blocked it, when it seemed to come to life.

Its really pretty and warm and is the natural colour of the Alpaca that the yarn came from.  I finished knitting it on 11th March 2014.

Want to know how I made the yarn for this shawl?  Just click Alpaca Amorcita yarn

Black Shetland Beaded Lace Shawl - Design L7

I enjoyed knitting with my own hand-spun wool so much that I am keen to do it again but this time I want something a little more challenging.  I can't wait to start knitting with some Black Shetland wool that I have spun up and I do have quite a few skeins of it.  I've chosen a design that has a lot of beads and have ordered the beads to go with the yarn.  The beads I am going to use are Size 8 Toho round seed beads in shade 83 metallic brown iris.

I started making this on 15th April and with this design you have to thread a given number of beads into the yarn to make the beaded tassel as you cast on.  You then work the first part of the pattern and put to one side and repeat a further 6 times until you have 7 scallops.  They are joined together as you knit across all of them and continue making the design.  All beads other than the tassels were added painstakingly one-at-a-time over the individual stitches which means that they cannot move out of position by sliding along the yarn and into wrong place over a period of time.  There are 5,083 beads on this shawl.  Well I did say I wanted something more challenging!

It was all crumpled up when it came off the needles.

A good soak and block soon sorted it out and those are the same scissors in the first of the above before and the below after photographs to give some idea of what a difference finishing off a shawl properly makes to the final garment.

I finished knitting this on 5th July 2013.  I love this design as the shaping around the neck line helps to keep it in place and makes it sit where it should.

Want to know how I made the yarn for this shawl?  Just click Black Shetland Fleece

Anemone gradient Wensleydale shawl - Design F213

Seeing as we are now in Spring/Summer I wanted to make a small, lightweight shawl that is just perfect for the season.  I found a sweet little pattern and decided to make one using my own hand-spun yarn.  It is a top-down shawl so I decided that I wanted the lightest colour at the top and so made sure that I began knitting with the lightest end of the yarn.  I also chose to use the same colour beads as on the Victorian lace shawl that took me almost 2 years to knit as the colour went perfect with this as well and they are Size 6 Toho round seed beads in shade 1076 Magenta lined grey.

I began knitting on 2nd April and finished on 4th April 2013.  Its pretty much a stocking stitch knit, with a few rows of garter stitch to add interest with "lines" or "ridges" throughout and finished off with a lace edge to which I added my beads.  I used 244 beads in total which added a little bit of much needed weight.

It was so crumpled up when it came off the needles but soaking and blocking soon sorted that out.

I am so proud of this shawl as it the first one I have made with my own hand-spun yarn.  I have made hats and things like that with my own hand-spun but this is the first shawl.

Want to know how I made the yarn for this shawl?  Just click Wensleydale Gradient Yarn

Purple Beaded Victorian Lace Shawl - Design L323

The yarn that I used for this shawl was a bit of a mystery so I had to do undertake a burns test and a bleach test to determine that it appears to be 100% acrylic or some similar man-made fibre.  There is definitely no cotton and no animal fibres in this yarn whatsoever.

I chose my pattern and bought some beads for the project which are Size 6 Toho round seed beads in shade 1076 Magenta lined grey, which basically means that the glass is a smokey grey as opposed to regular clear glass.  I am using a size 3.25mm circular knitting needle and started the project on 22nd March 2011.

The design for this shawl has been re-written in modern knitting terms from a Victorian pattern and is what is known as "true lace", which means that every single row is complex lace stitches as opposed to one row of lace on the right side and one row purl.  Having issues with working from the charts for this pattern, what with that and family life I finally managed to complete the first diamond border by mid June 2011.  I didn't touch this shawl again until mid-September and it wasn't until I redrew the charts out myself, removing the silly and confusing colour coding that meant different things on right side and wrong side rows that was used on the originals did I start to make progress.  I was adding beads individually over the stitches as I knit them in the centre of the diamonds and between the two rose leaves.

Oh my, this project was taking forever to actually complete as it was once again sat waiting for me to pick it up again for about 6 months.  It was a combination of "I can't face it" mixed in with "I have all these other things to finish" and plenty of family life not giving me time or the peace and quiet to concentrate on this complicated design.  When I finally finished the knitting on 6th March 2013, this project had taken just shy of 2 years from start to finish and it was quite out of shape.  I used a total of 248 beads on this shawl, which gave it a little bit of much needed weight as it so light and floaty.

Of course, this shawl needed to be soaked and blocked to show it off to its full potential, with little peaks along the diamond border at each end..

It is absolutely beautiful and lovely drape and is so lightweight with just a hit of bling from the beads.