Peacock Feathers Shawl

Finally! Completion is here! After a couple of months of gathering dust under the couch, my Peacock Feathers Shawl was resurrected and completed with gusto. And here it is:

What was it doing under the couch for so long? Nope, I didn't get bored or frustrated with it...this one turned into another story from Steffi's file of 'ran out of yarn' projects. Remember what happened with the Hemlock Ring Blanket? With just 1/8 of the cast off edge to go, I was left looking at my yarnless hands. This time, though, the yarn trailed off waaaaaay before the finish line. D'oh!

The original pattern called for approximately 110gm of Zephyr 2/18, which is a yarn that I used to make the Frost Flowers and Leaves. I had 200gr of a similar weight yarn from Norway, purchased on holiday there (thanks mum!) and figured that would be enough.

WRONG!

To make a long story short, the yarn factory apparently sent me an extra hank of yarn which never arrived (Merry Christmas to whoever got the package), so I enlisted the help of a lovely Norwegian lady from Ravelry, who very kindly took a trip to her local yarn barn to find the same yarn in seemingly the same dyelot, too. Cheers, Gaupe! We did a yarn swap and I sent her some of my favourite Finnish yarn in a deep turquoise colour. Turns out that I needed quite a lot of extra yarn - about 25 grams.

Pattern: Peacock Feathers Shawl
Designer: Dorothy Siemens
Source: Fiddlesticks Knitting
Finished Measurements: HUGE. 240cm wide and 110cm deep
Needles: 3.5mm bamboo circulars
Crochet Hook: 3.5mm addi
Yarn Details:

• Røros Tweed Brodergarn
• 100% pure new wool from the Spælsau sheep
• colour #351
• 225 grams used
  

The yarn label doesn't give any extra details about the yarn and so I don't know how many metres on hank contains, but it looks to me to be a lace weight or possibly light fingering weight yarn.

This pattern is extremely well-written and the charts are ridiculously clear, which is what I expected for a pattern that costs $12. I would rate it as an intermediate level, mainly because of the third patterend section, where it is quite tricky to 'read' the lace and judge whether you've made a boo-boo (or even if you're in the right spot).

Blocking this was an affair in itself, as our floor rug at home wasn't wide enough to accommodate this shawl's tremendous wingspan. So I blocked the centre first and then did the tips separately later. Then, how to take pictures of this whopper? The only way I could manage to take a picture of the whole thing whilst in the house was to hang it up as a curtain, but after waiting impatiently for several days for the clouds and drizzle to clear, I headed down to the river to capture the great colour contrasts happening now during 'ruska', as is said in Finnish.

This is a good example of "All's Well That Ends Well", isn't it?

Ribbed Lace Bolero

Wow, in just a couple of days my two balls of yarn ended up as this cool bolero. Super easy + super fast = winning combination!

Pattern: Ribbed Lace Bolero
Designer: Kelly Maher
Source: 10 feet high
Measurements: 40cm deep and 63 cm wide, measured at widest point when flat
Needles: 5mm and 6.5mm bamboo circulars
Yarn Details:

• Novita Isoveli
• 75% wool, 25% nylon
• 100g = 130m
• colour #228
• about 170g used
  

I wanted my bolero to be a bit bigger than the original, so I figured that the combination of my slightly thicker yarn and loose knitting tension along with the original pattern instructions would lead me to the desired size. And I was right! I'm very happy with the fit of this garment, although I'm sure a couple of centimetres in either direction would have been fine too, given the forgiving nature of the fabric and cut.

I did the cast off mentioned in the pattern and it gave a fabulously stretchy edge. Excellent!

This is my first time using this yarn and have no complaints about it at all. Love the colour! And I'm not alone, as a quick look on Ravelry showed at least half a dozen recent projects in the same yarn and colour. It's supposed to be machine washable, so let's keep our fingers crossed that nothing drastic happens to it in the abyss of the washing machine.

Easy pattern, quickly finished, great result - highly recommended. No wonder almost 1000 others have entered it in on Ravelry!

Chicken Viking Hat

Sometimes you need a bit of a break from 'serious' knitting. After lots of lace shawls and complicated charts, I was ready for a quick and fun project - and I found it...in the form of a chicken hat.

It got me laughing!

Mauno wasn't quite so impressed...

...and this dude refused to be seen in public with two drumsticks poking out of his head.

Project: Chicken Viking Hat
Designer: Sarah Mundy
Source: Aloha Media
Needles: 3.75mm and 4mm
Yarn Details: about 60gr of mystery Macedonian stuff.

I stuffed the drumsticks with the yarn itself, for two reasons. 1) I'm too lazy and cheap to buy real stuffing. 2) This way, the stuffing is the same colour as the knitted fabric and therefore won't be visible.

"Give one to someone you love this Christmas"

River

A couple of weeks back I took a long train trip.

This is how I spent the time.

Project: River
Designer: Sharon Miller
Source: Rowan 38 (although it has also been published for free here)
Measurements: 47cm x 133cm
Needles: 6.5mm bamboo circulars
Yarn details:

• Novita Rose Mohair
• 65% acrylic 35% mohair
• 50gr = 190m
• colour #010
• about 125gr used

This worked up quickly and I was surprised to find that it was done within a few days. I really shouldn't have been so surprised - those 6.5mm needles felt like broom handles!

A very nice, easy and intuitive pattern. There's no chart, but it didn't take me long to draw up a small one, more as a guide than anything else, as after a while it's quite easy to read the lace as you're going and predict what to do from there. Blocking consisted of flattening it out on the rug and then giving it a light spray. Too easy! This would be a really good first lace project and also a last-minute gift idea. Hmmm, Christmas is coming...

My first time with the Rose Mohair and no complaints here. It's soft and fluffy (word of advice: don't wear black pants while using this stuff) and my finished River is warm and cuddly against my neck. And I'll be needing to use it soon, as winter is well and truly on the way, my friends - there was ice on the car windscreen over the weekend. Yep.


I am all too aware of the fact that I have made many lacy shawls and stoles in recent times, and I promised myself that the next project after this one would not be a member of the same family. So there's a hat just about ready to come off the needles, and a pair of gloves coming along nicely.