Aeoilan Shawl

With the sun shining this morning I took the opportunity to get outside and photograph the shawl.

It took a little while to find a good backdrop, until I found this wall. Wrapping it round a tree this time just wasn't cutting it.

I love the shadow of the branches against the shawl.

Half-way through, I realised the shawl was creating a delicate shadow onto the wall behind.

Here are some indoor shots, which show the true colour of the yarn.

It snowed here this week! Just in time for Christmas. I know this will look pretty pathetic for those of you who have proper snow, but it really is unusual to see snow in London.

As we walked home late on Thursday night, the snow was falling in large flakes and we expected to wake up to a winter wonderland, but there was only ice, so I don't have any good photos of our brief flurry.

Aeolian is Blocking

It's finished, and I'm happy with it:

When it's dry I'll take some better photo's. If I hadn't had some other projects to finish (which I can't show you yet), it would have been finished weeks ago, but here it is now.

It was difficult to block. The points of the "flowers"at the edge are not as pointy as they would have been had I used lace-weight yarn. I had decided to use DK for warmth and weight and knew the finished result would not look the same. I made the smallest version so it's more wearable and found Adriana's blocking photo's very helpful, though my points are nowhere near as good as hers. Don't look too closely at the blocking as it's not perfect!

And yes, it's blocking on the faithful Barbie blocking towel: don't ask why I own a towel like that; it has something to do with DH's Stag do (Bachelor party).

Take a look at the beauitiful cardigan, below. It's Gentle Rose from last month's Simply Knitting. I already have the yarn for it (Patons Pompero in Ruby 32) and will be starting it over Christmas when I have lots of free time when we go to my parents in Scotland for 10 days). I like the puffed sleeves and colour, and love an open cardigan.

We're also going to get some skiing in as there's enough snow and the slopes are open at Cairngorm.

I also quite like Ginger, below, but it's quite impractical. The jury's out on this one.

Meanwhile, having been scared by some threads on Ravelry about moths desecrating entire stashes, I have invested in some vacuum bags to prevent that problem. You can see yarn, FO's and toys sucked up in this one:

Christmas is in the air, and I'm loving it.

Give-away Winner

I gave Rebecca an extra two weeks, but I'm afraid I haven't heard anything, so I've drawn another winner: it's Adriana! I've PM'd her on Ravelry and when she's given me her address I'll post the yarn off to her straight away.

Congratulations!

In an effort to put off a project that I have to finish, in true knitter style I have started a new WIP: an Aeolian shawl, below:

I've well and truly caught the shawl bug, though it's the actual knitting process and finished project rather than the usability of them that I enjoy.

I've known about the Aeolian for a while but wan't sure I wanted to make one so intricate, but having looked for another shawl pattern and not found anything nearly as stunning, I cast on last night. It has the advantage of being by the same designer as the Swallowtail (Elizabeth Freeman), which I really enjoyed, and doesn't involve increases on the purl side, a major factor.

I'm not loving the colour yet, but it was in the stash and I thought I'd use it up. It's Allison Avery Merino DK in Crimson, and it's very soft. I think it works better in fingering weight and darker colours. Navy blue could be nice...

Toad also recently lent me her EZ book, Knitter's Almanac, which has proved for some interesting reading.

DH has declined to have a pair of these made for him!: