Shawls

Hello,
well we are slipping gently back into the school and work routine. Uniforms, lunches and out the door. Blogging time is again at a premium. But I cant let a year go by without mentioning the Exchange! For those of you who don't know one of the highlights of my year is the RowanTree Exchange. This year the theme was "Fit for a queen" My exchange gifts for the RowanTree exchange have arrived in the sunny Netherlands. So I thought I would share.
This was a mystery shawl from Through the loops, I really struggled with this one as it really didn't want to behave on the blocking. I think this might of been because it should of been lace weight and I bought to dye for 4ply in Bloody Valentine ( what a great name hey? I bought it on the strength of that alone). Anyway I invested in some wires and was ruthless and that seemed to work. I also made this.

Nessie a shawl that my exchangee specifically asked for. It was pretty perfect for the bus rows, upon rows of garter stitch. It was a little bit mind numbing but I actually really liked it when it was finished the way the ends twirl is very flattering.
Then I realised that there are quite a few shawls from the past few months that haven't been shown.
Many of them were done on the bus last term. I have a little shawl addiction going on all because of BooKnits her shawls are lovely!! This was my first, Cloud Illusions
the perfect medium for a lovely skein dream in colour starry that I was gifted as part of the RownTree Exchange last year.
I keep buying her little booklets and seeing more and more that I want to own. This one is called Sweet Dreams ( they all have lovely names)

The yarn is madelainetosh light and I was lucky enough to get in on a ravelry destash from none other than Booknits herself.
I am still knitting the mystery shawl as I think I mentioned last post, it is called out of the darkness. It is a bit of an experiment I am dyeing my yarn every six rows or so, covering the whole shawl with the dye and then when I am ready to dye again filling the bottle back up to the top with water so the colour dilutes. To me it looks like summer skies I love it. Just need a few more hours to finish.
Speaking of dyeing, I have finished Lillian!!! Watch this space for a grand reveal.

Till next time
Arianwen

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Hello again,
The summer holidays hold all kinds of happiness but, of one my favourite selfish pleasures is the Rowan Exchange. When I first started taking part it was as a member of Rowan International an exclusive club that Rowan has for getting your magazine. I still belong to Rowan international but the exchange is now open to all who join the Rowan Tree a friendly little forum on Ravelry.
I love every aspect of the Exchange from choosing which yarn and gift my victim will love, to finding little extras to pop in the parcel and then of course waiting for the post man who always turns up pretty close to my birthday! This year Skeiner Organised it we had to write an essay about ourselves, our likes and dislikes and she suggested we look at our victims favourites and queued items for inspiration.
I have to say I did struggle a bit. Other years the information that I received from my victim was more straight forward- yes no answers. By the end of reading the essay I knew she liked purple and black and from her queue I knew that she liked fingerless gloves.
A pair of Veyla gloves would be perfect for Starside and I knew I wanted make a shawl or a hat to go with them.
Now although she has made a lot of lacy shawls none of them seemed to be for her and to be honest as I had met her once she didn't really strike me as a lacy kinda girl! So in the end I settled with Damson also by Ysolda Teague. I chose Drops Alpaca to make both things in. A lovely rich purple which I knew would be right up starside's street. Anyway they are finished and sent and Starside assures me that she likes them. I love the Veyla and would definitely make them again but, Damson I have my reservations about
I don't think I will make it again it was very easy to do perhaps too easy and I think the end result is more than a little bland. Luckily the yarn is fantastic so even screwed up inside a coat used as a scarf it should be ok. Oriana liked it:)

As for my gift received... I think Gillspain found the choosing of a gift really easy! It is just perfect for me. I saw this in the Summer Interweave magazine and immediately queued it on Ravelry. The trouble is with bags I rarely make anything like that for myself especially if I have to try and work out an English equivalent yarn.
Gilspain used allseasons cotton in green. She also sent two skeins of llama yarn and an odd skein of green all seasons cotton (which I have already used) There is an unfounded rumour going around that I am obsessed with green. I am however, totally obsessed with this bag!! I literally jumped up and down when I opened the parcel. Hence the very wobbly photos. I thought I might be going to have to fight Pinkie for it but, it isn't crochet so after an initial sniff she left it alone.

When the door bell went.

On wednesday my rowan exchange gift arrived from the wonderful knitter, Kira of Tasmania. Funnily enough the illusive Kira was my exchange partner last year and as she says we must be a good match. I am inclined to agree as I can safely say I love everything that she has ever sent me. I say illusive because last year I had no way of thanking her except on the Rowan site.This year I am glad to say I do have a return address.I was so moved by my beautiful gifts, they made me cry, such a wonderful present.
First things first the season she was knitting for was Summer and she made me this fantastic shawl.



I was kind of hoping I would get something like a shawl or a scarf but this is above my wildest dreams. It is 50/50 wool silk hand painted from the knittery and so soft! The weather is not great here it has to be said but I wore it with jeans around the supermarket on wednesday, and I am wearing it now as I type. But not only did she send me this, she also sent loads of other goodies.


Some beautiful handpainted sock yarn ( now I definetly need a book of sock patterns what with this yarn and the ladybird one), a pair of 4mm Tasmanian Oak knitting needles which is greatly appreciated for my growing collection of posh needles. Two large pieces of fudge , jaffa orange and irish cream - delicious. some salts to go with fish, applepaste to go with cheese and a wonderful fruit tea! The fruit tea is amazing it is loose so no horrid wax bag taste which is what you usually get with fruit teas and the longer it stews the sweeter it gets, ideal for summer as I think you could probably drink it cold with ice as well as hot.

Rowan Exchange Bag Pattern

The bag that I made was based on Amanda's Squatty on knitting daily but my eyes started to glaze over when I read the pattern so it became this made up pattern:- chunky wool from coldspring mill knitted double. It is equivelent to Rowan Polar in weight. on 10mm straights cast on 15 sts. garter stitch till you like the length. I think it was 60 rows pick up stitches on 7mm circ 30ish on the long sides 15 on the short. every other row k2tog at first corner ssk at second corner(so the decreases lean in on the shorter sides.) stop when you think it is big enough. Cast off. cast on 5st knit until long enough to go over your arm cast off. Cast on 5sts knit till will go over top of bag as closure add magnetic clasp and crocheted flower ( I am not very good at this so the two flowers are stitched together.)It is all very quick I finished it in less than a day.

The Rowan Exchange!

The info about the Rowan Exchange came through last week. This time a blog has been recorded in the person's details, and I have taken to lurking on a new site, very difficult for me as I feel I have to comment on everything! The information I have is that I am working for the season Autumn and the person likes socks. I feel a bit of a fraud giving socks as a present so I really have my fingers crossed on this one. The pattern I have chosen is a Heartstrings pattern, Beaded swirl socks. I thought the lorna's laces yarn in red rover looked most like Autumn leaves. The beads are a Rowan bead in a copper colour. The person I am knitting for has got larger feet than me so I have had to ask around to find a friend with the right size feet. I just found such a person ( a real friend she just measured her feet on the doorstep!)so I now have the measurements and am ready to go.I am really looking forward to starting these but the first job is winding the skeins into balls Urgh!