I made the mistake of asking the lovely Ben what to title this blog post – I don’t think he was feeling particularly inspired this morning.
“Green Thing”, was his instant answer.
“That doesn’t really conjurer up a beautiful, lace shawl does it?”, I said.
“Here is a beautiful lace shawl wot I made and some pictures of it. I hope you like it but no pressure and stuff.” He smirked. “Is that better?”
My top tip for knit-bloggers is “Don’t ask you husband for blogging advice when he is half awake, hasn’t finished his coffee and has his nose in a board games forum online”
Sorry Readers, I can hear you thinking, “Green shawl? Enough of Ben’s silliness, tell us more about that shawl!”
So…
In April, I went on a Yarncrawl with several friends from Woolly Women (the knitting group run by Rowan at John Lewis in Bluewater). We had a great day out visiting London yarn shops and spent a huge amount of time and money at Loop in Islington. Loop carry some fabulous unusual yarns. I need more yarn like a hole in the head but when I saw this yarn I could not resist…
It’s Alice DK by Juno…
100g of 70% Alpaca, 20% Silk, 10% Cashmere softness
I think it was partly because the colour matched my coat! (And matched half my wardrobe as I love this chartreuse green)
I have a (shop bought!) wrap this colour that I wear with my coat but it is very big and bulky – I end up looking like I’m smuggling a small cat down the front of my outfit – not a good look.
So I snapped up 2 skeins of this fabulous yarn intending to make a cowl (Yes I do seem to have gone a bit “cowl-crazy”)
I searched every cowl pattern on Ravelry and couldn’t find the right thing until I found the Emanuela Crescent shawl pattern that take exactly one skein of a similar yarn.
This was the pattern pic that did it for me – I could just see this under my coat 🙂
Pattern pic for Emanuela
It’s not a cowl but It will fill the neck of my coat perfectly.
So do you want to see my version?
Here you are..
Why haven’t I made this kinda thing before?
This was a deceptively easy knit and a really well written pattern – some stocking stitch , increases at the end of every row, some lace (charted and written instructions) and a pretty and very simply crochet picot cast off. And did it use one skein? Yes! Exactly one skein -with about 2 meters left over. I was holding my breath doing the cast off 😉
Here’s a closer look..
Yum!
Hmmm – doesn’t show the whole thing very well does it?
Try this…
I like shots where I can hide my face – doesn’t matter if I blink!
To get that effect, I did have to block the shawl. I’m not a shawl expert and definitely not an authority on blocking so I’m not sure if I did this right.
Swooshed in cool water, squeezed gently then rolled tightly in a clean towel until just damp. I used then blocking set I bought for my Modern Quilt Wrap and pinned it out on the sofabed in the knit room (the mattress/seat is memory foam – really good for blocking!
This is how it looked…
patiently waiting for it to dry…
And a close up of the lace edge and each picot, carefully pinned out.
a zillion pins later…
There was one mishap – as I stretched out the shawl – ping! I’d obviously split the yarn and mis-knit a stitch – it pung (is that the past tense of ping? ) undone.
Horror.
Horror picture to put fear into the hearts of all lace knitters
Some patience, some swearing, three crochet hooks and a carefully concealed knot of one ply of the yarn managed to repair the damage.
So the only thing I haven’t shown you is how it looks with the coat 😀
Loving that Green Thing!
What to do now with that second skein?? Too expensive to just “stash” – I may ask Loop to change it for another colour and knit another one of these!
| Completed Knit Report | ||
| Name: | Emanuela – The Green Thing | |
| Pattern: | Emanuela by Paulina Popiolek | |
| Yarn: | Alice DK by Juno in Chartreuse | |
| Pattern Problems: | None | |
| Pattern Modifications: | None | |
| Washing and Wearing: | Wonderful to wear – this could be kinda shawl for me. | |
| Knit It Again???: | Most certainly “Yes” | |
| Difficulty: | Medium – nothing hard but lots of different techniques like short rows, lace etc. | |
| Rating: | 5/5 | |
| Other Postings Relating To This One: | None | |
It is gorgeous! You are right about it going perfectly with that coat. I’d not seen that pattern before, I may have to give that one a go myself!
This is stunning. And what a beautiful colour! I know what you mean about Loop though. Temptation everywhere in that emporium of woolly delights.
Love it. Am going to have to source this pattern and have a go myself. Much prettier than a simple scarf..
Gorgeous! I’m off to add the pattern to my favourites. Oh my goodness, I would have been panicking with that stitch to repair!!
Gosh Susan, you certainly keep yourself occupied with all your different knitting projects. How many things do you knit in a year? I love the shawl.
very nice! lol, i know exactly what you mean with the ‘asking your other half’, the story you tell at the beginning sounds sooooo familiar 🙂
As I seem to have developed a small obsession with knitting shawls I would like to pass on a bit of advice on blocking – no expert here. I have learned it is advisable to soak for at least an hour, this allows all the fibres to beome totally saturated, allowing you to stretttch the stitches without breaking the yarn. I use SOAK for soaking but there are others such as Euclan… Then i squeeze gently and towel roll to remove as much moisture as possible, the fibres however are still wet.
Your shawl is beautiful and I encourage you to knit more and try lots of different shapes and designs.
Love that! It goes perfectly with your coat. I’m also really liking your green conservatory!
next time you have a knitting adventure in london visit “nest” in crouch end…my favourite shop! friendly, knowledgable staff, wonderful mother-daughter team whose passion for knopitting is obvious, delectable yarns, fabulous gifts…I could go on and on!
great shawl in one of my favourite colours.
Love it. Shawl is stunning. Have started knitting a lace scarf for my mum but that has gone on the back burner as will probably end up as a Christmas present.
It’s absolutely beautiful! Perfect with your coat as well 🙂
Besides being addict to knitting and hand dyeing yarn, I’m also a shawl pattern hunter. Beautiful pattern!