It's a shawl thing . . . .

When I'm not on my blog for an extended spell, it usually means I've got so completed obsessed with making something, I can't stop long enough to write about it!  That's sort of happened the last couple of weeks and January was such a long difficult month, financially-speaking, I just pulled down the hatches and knittted my way through the month, pretending it wasn't really happening -  it seemed to work for me :) :)

I've had a real breakthrough by learning to read lace knitting charts - well, its just opened up a whole new world of patterns to me!  It started with a pair of lace socks (more of them later), but led me on to making a lace shawl - gasp!!!  I've never had a notion to make a shawl but a funky free pattern on Ravelry has been sitting in my 'fave' list for a while.  I bashed on with this so quickly I couldn't stop to blog about it, but here it is in its full glory . . . . 

I used some yarn/wool called Aire Valley Aran Fusions from West Yorkshire Spinners - from a previously ripped out project from last Winter!  The colours are lovely though - this is Autumn Mix.  I used a 6 mm needle.

If you thought knitted lace shawls had to be floaty, intricate, flyaway things - think again!  This pattern by Sylvia Bo Bilvia is written for worsted weight (btw DK and aran) and is a fab introduction to shawl knitting.  It's got me hooked anyway :)  I've still to block this (seemingly lace shawls MUST be stretched and blocked) but I will possibly just stretch it out and spray block it with a water spritzer thingy (I found a finished kitchen cleaner spray bottle under my kitchen sink) - you've probably got one too if you look ;-)

I've started another shawl in a lighter weight yarn, so I'll try to document it as I go - it's such a lovely process to make a shawl.  There's a little bit of magic involved in it in the same way as sock knitting has - the finished piece seems to emerge triumphantly at the end!

Here's the lace sock by the way . . . 

Sorry, slightly dark pic - I told you January was grim, hehe!  A lovely leafy pattern by Stephanie Van der Linden from Around the World in Knitted Socks, a really lovely book.

It looks sort of medieval in this picture - my other half thought I was knitting a shoe!  I wasn't using the suggested yarn, but some Guernsey wool I had in my stash - I think it's still pretty though.  I'm on the second sock but the ball of wool is running out fast . . . 

Anyhoo, sorry for the absence but now that yukky January is out of the way I hope to be here a little more often :)  I've promised to document my current shawl project (another fantastic free pattern from Ravelry!) so a promise, is a promise!  It would be nice to document it from the cast-on all the way to the blocking process (which is quite new to me).  I'll try and throw in what I've learnt so far about lace shawl knitting too :)

See you soon :)

Alison x

P.S.  BTW I do have errors in my shawl but this variegated yarn is VERY forgiving - I think the errors make it more unique, haha!