Striped handspun shawl

Sorry to those of you who keep hoping for another sewing project.  I'm not feeling in the mood to sew currently though I do have some projects waiting in the wings and several ideas but I am lacking the motivation at present and hoping it will come back soon.  I've seen some lovely patterns that I'd like to try, including a jacket and dress combo from Style Arc and a rather fabric hungry coat from McCalls which I desperately want to make even though I do own about eleventy billion coats already which does make it rather a nice to do rather than a need to have.  I don't think that is going to stop me in this particular case. 

So instead, I'm knitting up my hand spun stash, with the intention  that once I have knitted some of it I can spin some more of the fibre stash. This project is made from one of my early attempts at spindle spinning and the first attempt that came out reasonably thin.  The fibre was a bag of mixed merino tops in purple shades from Wingham Woolwork and I think this is about half the bag.  It is a two ply and not a true gradient since I spun it before I understood how a true gradient was created.  I believe it was one of the first yarns I spun on my IST Pippy Yew spindle, which is a mid weight one.  I recall it took a long time to spin and kept me out of mischief for quite a while, but I hadn't realised just how MUCH yardage I'd created.  This shawl did not take all the yarn, I had one more colour left to knit in but the shawl was getting so big I didn't think I wanted to continue on.  As it is, the thing measures two meters across the top from tip to tip.  The shawl is planned for outdoor use in the winter with my best purple coat.  The coat has a huge removable mini cape collar, like a highwaymans coat, but it can be a bit of a nuisance as you can't unbutton it when you get warm since it flaps about in an annoying and unattractive fashion.  I thought I'd remove the cape collar, revealing the stand collar beneath, and wear this rather large shawl around my neck for warmth and dramatic effect. 


The pattern is Travelling Woman by Liz Abinante though mine has considerably more repeats of the main pattern than the original.  And, the more observant amongst you will notice that the main stitch pattern itself is in fact the same as the shady glen shawl I made earlier in the year, with the addition of a fancy edging.  This made it a reasonably quick knit as I was well practiced in the stitch pattern repeat.