Just as I had hoped, my Henslowe flung itself off my needles on hopped onto the blocking boards and voilà (casually practicing my French here), it’s done!

Pattern: Henslowe by Beth Kling
Yarn: Malabrigo Sock in the Ochre colourway

Henslowe requires 1 skein of fingering weight yarn, which is pretty great. I’m pretty sure 99% of knitters could just dive into their stash right now and come up with a pretty skein, either solid, semi-solid, or even lightly speckled would be great. There’s not too much knitting time involved in this either, the pattern is really not that difficult but has lots of fun lace to work through. Obviously all this, the speediness of the project and low yardage, does mean it is not the biggest shawl ever. If you are looking for a shawl you can bury yourself in, move on. If you are looking for a light lace shawl you can drape over your shoulders and prance around in during summer, this is the shawl for you.

I also just love Malabrigo sock. I have used it a couple of times before, also for some shawls and hats. Ironically, I’ve never knit a pair of socks out of this yarn, and to be honest I don’t think I will. The yarn is lovely and pretty and soft, but has no nylon content and I’d be so worried they would wear out in no time. But yes, for shawls I’d recommend this yarn all the way.

I’m super pleased I now also made this shawl for myself, and look forward to wearing the hell out of it this summer. And for comparison, here is a side-by-side shot of the shawl I knit in 2015 (and gifted) and my brand new shiny Henslowe shawl. I might honestly end up knitting one of these in every colour of the rainbow.

Do you have any pattern you’ve knit multiple times?

A couple of months ago I came across the most fantabulous pompoms on Etsy and couldn’t resist impulse buying them (to be found here). They are everything fluffy unicorn dreams are made of, and I knew immediately there was no way my knitting could ever upstage them. I also knew that one of these pompoms would lend itself perfectly as a gift to one of my friends, which is how I ended up making this cute little hat.

Pattern: Frais by Alicia Plummer
Yarn: Malabrigo Arroyo in the ‘natural’ colourway

I kept both the pattern and yarn as simple as possible, but obviously without ending up knitting a boring hat. The neatly folded rim combined with the eye-of-the-partridge stitch running across the head made for interesting, yet very quick and simple knitting.

It is of course the pompom that does all of the talking in this hat. It.is.so.pretty!

And luckily for me I have another one in my stash, waiting patiently for me to make a decision on matching yarn + pattern. I’m trying to find a yarn that is a bit wilder in terms of colours, but that will still combine nicely with all the colours in the pompom. To be continued..

 

Hello dear little blog space of mine, it’s been so long since I’ve visited and even longer since I last had an FO to share. Luckily, I have finally finished and handed in my PhD thesis, so this is all about to change! Now I can proudly share my first FO of 2018.

Pattern: Invincible Summer shawl by Susanne Sommer (published in issue 2 of Laine magazine)
Yarn: Spingodin sock yarn in the colours veenhout, hunebed, sneeuwuil & mos

This was such a perfect winter knit for me. Firstly, because I loved working with all the muted grey colours and then getting to finish it up with a pop of bright green. Secondly, because this is a truly massive shawl that I can fully wrap myself in during these still very cold winter days.

The shawl is triangular and looks like a whole bunch of garter stitch (which is obviously true), but is very interesting to knit nonetheless. Along the spine of the shawl, as well as the border, you get to work lots of brioche stitch, alternating between one and two colour brioche. Susanne Sommer has published tons of shawl designs which incorporate brioche, all equally stunning. After already finishing the Cosmic Wonder brioche shawl last year I am completely sold on the idea and will hopefully make tons more.

I pretty much followed the muted colour palette as it is published in the magazine, but this could easily be the perfect shawl to work up all those single skeins of bright speckled yarn you have lying around. I’m happy I got to use a Dutch dyer for this shawl, it’s always nice to see what amazing yarns fellow-dutchies can create. I truly love all four of these colours and could easily imagine myself using them again to make a sweater (which is secretly my 2018 knitting goal, year of the sweater anyone?).

What knits are you working on this winter?