Yet Another FO

I finally have the details on my finished shawl for you:

Black Spruce Shawl

Begun: October 9, 2012

Completed: November 11, 2012

Yarn: Main – DGB Confetti Superwash, 75% superwash wool/25% nylon, Colour 9030 (heathered dark gray), 210m=50g. 2 balls. Contrast – Sandnes Garn Sisu, 80% superwash wool/20% nylon, 175m=50g, dark gray/white marl, overdyed dark red. 1 ball.

Needles: Main – Addi Lace circular, 4mm. Cast-on – 5mm.

Pattern: Lace edging from The Haapsalu Scarf, p.173 (top). Top curve shape adapted from the Mezquita Shawl by Roxanne Yeun.

Comments: This is my own frankenpattern: combining a wide Estonian spruce tree edging with a garter stitch crescent shawl. The swatch photo is closer to the true colour. The others are lighter so you can see details.

The Confetti yarn is not suitable for long-wearing socks or gloves because the white nylon content pills out of the black wool and looks awful. Hopefully it will be better in a shawl that doesn’t get hard wear. I didn’t have quite enough for the whole project so added a ball of marled (2 plies black and 1 ply white) Sisu that I had overdyed dark red for the crescent section. The nupps took a remarkable amount of yarn! I ran out of the first ball just after the middle row of the chart. The second half didn’t take nearly as much and I had plenty left of the main colour to finish the top eyelet border.

I’m really pleased with the results - a long narrow shawl that’s actually more like a scarf. The garter stitch makes it really warm! Using the chart and the legend plus notes (click on the pics for larger) you can make one too. Let me know if you do!

    

In other crafty news, I’ve been cruising along on the curtain weaving project. My (relatively) new Bluster Bay end-feed shuttle is working quite wonderfully:

Isn’t she a beauty? Mine is a mid-sized one with a closed bottom. Not too big and uses the same pirns as my AVL end-feed shuttle. I have 7 of those pirns and they hold a surprising amount. Because you don’t fuss with the selvedges at all with an end-feed shuttle, they take care of themselves. If you have the tension correct, the selvedges are very nice:

I threaded the yarn through 3 of the 6 hooks and it was perfect. In the detail photo above you can see the huck lattice pattern. And my rather uneven beat! The lace will show up more when the fabric is washed. And hopefully the uneven beat will show up less! I’m currently just over half finished the weaving. Moving right along.