Life LackaDaisiCal

Ta Da! Pattern: Groovy (DK and Aran Weight)  available on Ravelry Yarn: Cashmere by Elisabeth Beverly , dyed with Indigo (You can find Elisabeth next at the Design and Craft Fair at West Dean College June 3-5 - info here ) Photos: Hubby! The Hubby hates it when I won't look at the camera....so eventually I can't help it, I look up and he keeps snapping away.... Even though it was a dull morning, the contrast between the white shirt and the dark indigo yarn was hard to manage! Straight off the needles, Groovy is all ripples of stocking and reverse stocking stitch....it's lovely and squishy like that and you could leave it as is!   I wanted to take advantage of the size of this shawl, so washed gently in Eucalan and lay flat to dry (no serious blocking). You can see the tiny swatch I knit up to test wash - no discernible indigo came out in the wash! I used all but 14 grams of my 275 grams (900 metres) of yarn! ...

What's this? Well, last year while in the UK, I happened to meet up with Elisabeth Beverley, she of Plant Dyed Wool fame. If you haven't heard of her, not to worry, she is very elusive and can be found at only a few select venues in the UK.  It just so happens that Elisabeth lives not far from a friend of mine in the UK. I visited Elisabeth once a couple of years ago and purchased some lovely cashmere (still in my stash - blogged here ) and at the time, inquired if she ever used indigo on her yarns. Well yes, she does, but didn't have any right now. Fast forward a couple of years...last June hubby and I are in the UK, I e-mail Elisabeth to inquire about indigo. Well yes, as a matter of fact, she does have some indigo and she very nicely popped over to my friends with a basket full of the different strengths of indigo dyed yarn. I could have bought it all!  After much to ing and fro ing, I settled on what looked like the darkest grouping, ...

I LOVE this blanket! The "Calm" colour way is just that....very calming, stylish and very sophisticated! (You don't have to be a Facebook person to view  my gallery of photos on Facebook. Go on, click and have a look!) All 8 "stages" (squares) were knit exactly as per the patterns as provided on the Rowan Yarns web site, in the shades as designated by the Calm colour way. 6 squares of each design. NO MODS!!! The make up chart, well, I have to tell you that sewing up is my bugaboo! So I started studying the finished afghan photo to decide on square placement! While I did get one strip wrong, it really didn't matter in the big scheme of things...and Rowan took my hint and released the make up diagram early (yeah!). The edge was knit with only one little twist....the edge has this cool braided effect (as provided by my knit buddy Stella).....I had to get my head around how this worked...... this is a garter stitch trim, knit two rows...

If you've been with me for a while, you'll know that Rowan has sponsored not one, not two, but THREE afghan knitalongs! The first was designed by Martin Storey, a collection of simple but effective squares, knit then sewn together, with a cable trim. Here's my version. (I picked my own shades and organized the squares into a tartan style layout.) This afghan is loved and used by everyone in the family (dogs included) and I can tell you it has stood up to the everyday wear and tear. My "ta da" it's finished post on the first Martin Storey Mystery KAL is here ..... Then there was the Kaffe Mystery afghan! Well, I'm a HUGE fan of Kaffe (what's not to love?) and I had to participate.... This time I recruited a "Kaffe Klatch", a group of knitting buddies to knit along with and help keep the momentum of a long afghan KAL going!  There were 4 of us, Darlene, Ann, Ros and I..... only one of us completed our afghans (to my knowledge...

Oh dear, I missed my official 10 year blog anniversary - my first blog entry was April 5, 2006 and it featured this photo.... Daisy had her own custom knit fair isle coat...which she loved to wriggle out of! Daisy was always helping me with my knitting!  She still does, but she is 12 now, and happy to curl up at my feet!  Back then I was knitting fair isle (stranded) knitting a lot, using Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift yarn. With stranded knitting, there are usually a lot of ends to be tidied up... this can be very therapeutic :) We had a cat, Caelee, and she ruled the roost! Even the Hubby appeared in those first few tentative blog posts....here he is in this somewhat fuzzy photo wearing a sweater that I insisted he buy when we were on vacation in Shetland. He kept saying I could knit him one :) Yes, I could.....but this one was all natural shades of hand spun yarn, and was hand knit (in the round)....it is so soft and he still loves to w...