Cables and shawls....

Hello! Thanks for stopping by and I hope all is good in your little part of the world. I've been having a wonderful time as it's been school hols here so three weeks of no early mornings, lazy days at home and lots of knitting time! We go back on Monday but I'm trying not to think about that too much....

I finally finished the "redo" sweater that I was reknitting and it came out rather well. Want to see?

(Excuse the quality of the pics but my Mum took them on a cloudy day. The wearer was busy with building work and was less than impressed about stopping to model it!)

I was very happy with the result although it's a little short in the sleeves. This will be remedied by picking up stitches around the cuffs and knitting another inch or so. The join won't show once its washed. I've done that a couple of times before and it works like a charm!

Another pic? NO problem.

Just LOVE that cable! It's a new one that I've never tried before and whilst it was a bit fiddly to do in the beginning, I soon got the hang of it. I love the contrast between the simple moss stitch panel down the centre and then that huge chunky cable! Gorgeous!

What else, I hear you say? Well, I made a little shawl/scarf for a friend of mine. She loves pink so when I saw this yarn I knew it was perfect for her. The pattern is Linus and this is the second one I've made now. The first you can see here.

I love the simplicity of this pattern which lends itself well to fancy yarns. I've seen it made up in sock yarns, self-striping yarn and various tonal yarns. It's easy, very quick (I made this in 2 evenings) and is a great stashbuster project. Because it's knitted end-to-end you can just keep going until you run out of yarn which is fab for me as I'm not very good and working out how much yarn I have! I really hope she likes it....

Then I started a project which I am VERY excited about. Let me first give you a little bit of background so you understand the reason behind my enthusiasm.

Here in South Africa there is very little choice when it comes to yarn. Almost all of the stuff you buy in the shops is 100% acrylic and whilst this is fine for most projects, sometimes I crave something a little more special. I see all the blogs of my UK and American friends where they show the most amazing yarns that they can get at their LYS but it's all just too expensive for me to even think about importing.

A few local companies are cropping up now with some locally produced yarns for example Nurturing Fibres, African Expressions and Vinnis but we have nothing like the variety that my overseas friends have. 

However. For a long time I have coveted a yarn from African Expressions called Soul which is handpainted and I finally took the plunge these hols and acquired some! So exciting! It lay in my drawer for a few days and I kept looking at it and touching it and then going on Ravelry to choose a pattern, then going back to look at it again ..... I'm sure you know what I mean. You so desperately want to cast on but the anticipation is all part of the process.....

I finally decided on Over The Sea to Skye which I have to confess, I chose largely because of the name!!! I cast on yesterday and this is my progress so far -

The yarn is made up of 15% kid mohair, 15% mulberry silk, 50% merino and 20% acrylic. It's beautiful to work with and with all the stitch variations, I'm able to see how it responds with each one. I can't tell you how much I've loving this project and I know I'll buy this yarn again (even if it means remortgaging my house to do so)! I will need to invest in a ball winder tho as I had to wind this by hand which wasn't easy. This was how it started out ....

and this is what it became ....

All those yummy colours! They do various other colourways but I know I'll never make socks with this yarn as it's just too gorgeous to be hidden inside shoes!

I'm off to knit (of course) and will hopefully finish my shawl before going back to school on Monday!

Til soon.

xxx