Mermaid's Lair Shawl

Unusually for me, this one has been on the needles for a while.  Since November according to my Ravelry project page.  However, I cast off on Tuesday and gave it a bath, and a blocking.  It was dry by Wednesday night and was round my neck at work today.  I wore it with a black skirt and black polo neck, black boots and black tights so it was the only pop of colour and I was very pleased with the look.  Its also very warm indeed.

The yarn is my own handspun, made from most of a gradient pack from Hilltop Cloud called Mermaids Lair.  The shawl actually came out a bit bigger than I had intended, perhaps because my yarn was a bit thicker than planned (at least in some places, in other places it was laceweight).  Overall though, it came out as planned, and I love the colour gradient.  Spun on my favourite IST spindle and then plied (seriously underplied actually) on the wheel, though a bit uneven in thickness the knitted fabric disguises that well.  And, when blocked, nothing snapped, frayed or otherwise misbehaved.   The fibre was a mix of merino and silk with a bit of other fibres too.  I am afraid I've mislaid the pack that it came in so can't state exactly the fibre content.  But its very soft and warm, perfect for a cold and miserable February day. 

The pattern is Shady Glen Shawl by Denise Bartels.  Free on Ravelry.  A very easy and satisfying knit.  Complicated enough to be interesting, simple enough to allow the telly to be on in the background and, unless particularly exciting things are happening on screen, knitting can progress happily and without incident.  I chose the pattern because it is sort of leaf like and being shades of green I wanted that nature type link between colour, fibre and pattern.

I planned this one to go with the various brown items that I've been making lately, as well as with the black as the single pop of colour as worn today.  In reality, it seems to go with quite a wide range of things.  What it doesn't do though, is fit in the shawl drawer.  I've sort of outgrown the drawer with my mad shawl making.  So I now need to find a new home for the shawls where they can spread a bit more and be viewed more easily.  Currently everything is tangled after a particularly bad tempered rootle about in search of a particular shawl I was sure was in there (it wasn't.... it turned up in my coat pocket two weeks later).