Snow Flurry

My baby sister gets me most of the time and so gives me amazingly just right presents.For Christmas 2014, I got Hunter Hammerson's ebook Curls. This is such a kid in the candy store book for me. My short list from this is only about 12 of the Curls. I cast on for the first curl, Pitted Olive on Boxing Day 2014 and this one went to my Mum. (After all I had liberated the yarn from her stash originally....)

My dream Curl was always the cover pattern - Filemot.  I love the the fern like lace and the crisp pop of the twisted stitches. Then it seemed as if all my online knitting friends were conspiring to make me knit a shawl in May / June. In The Unofficial Women’s Weekly group there was a shawl / scarf knit along running. In the Stitch Addiction Podcast Ravelry group there was a Shawl KAL for May and June (with prizes). In Village Hopelessly Over Committed, May was Cast on Dream month. And in Laughing Purple Goldfish designs, it was Me Me Me May.

I can take a hint when it’s that blatant guys!

A dream knit needs dream yarn too. Dream yarn doesn't need to be expensive. It just has to be a dream to knit with and wear. In my case this came cheaply from an op shop. (That's a thrift store or charity shop for my US and UK readers). This is a blend of wool and other delicious goodies possibly alpaca, angora or mohair. It has such depth of colour for such a neutral shade. It also blocks up delicious soft with a lovely drape and feel. Knitting this curl would be the swansong for this well loved batch of yarn. (It's also been part of two hats - Federation and Winter Smoke as well as the amazing Anyone got Cable! scarf-ghan)

Pattern: Filemot
Needles: 4.5 mm straights and a long circular
Yarn: upcycled 8 ply (DK) op shop wool, alpaca and, I suspect angora, blend in winter white/cream with small gray and black fibres
Cost: 50 cents for the whole bag - best 50 cents I ever spent on yarn!

Selfie with an SLR with my eldest daughter. She knitted the cowl she is wearing. I'm really proud of her.

This was not an easy knit by any means. It was has literally millions of twisted stitches and they are slow to knit. It's a full lace pattern - no plain purl rows to have a breather and there are twisted stitches on the purl side too. It took me a few goes to get some of the stranger twisted decreases straight in my head (especially the ones decreasing two stitches at a time). However, it was worth the pain and occasional frustration.

Like all lace, blocking really makes a difference. You really don't see the full beauty of the lace when it's all crumpled up on the needles.

The shawl did get finished in time to make the cut off for prizes for the KAL in the Stitch Addiction Podcast Ravelry group but it didn't win a prize. In one of life's great ironies, the post after mine did!

The beauty of curls is in their curved shape and hence the many, many ways you can style and wear them.

Draped around the shoulders secured with a shawl pin shows the asymmetry of the shawl off to perfection.

 

Or start with the largest point at the front and warp the ends around and secure with a brooch or shawl pin.

Or wrap around like a scarf to create a snuggly neck warmer to ward off the chill on a blusterly late winter day at the seasdide.

Thanks once again to my daughter and son for their amazing photography skills. These photos were taken on the beautiful Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, Australia. If you look very carefully in the last photo you can see my happy photo bombing family.

(Let's not mention the fact that I last time I posted on the blog was My 2015 shall we? Sorry blog, I do still love you - but LIFE!!!! makes me have to do tedious things first sometimes)