Snowdrops and Lace

I had a few days off this week so I decided to go for a walk amongst the snowdrops.  I headed over to Marks Hall.  First of all I walked by the lake

and along the millennium path where the winter scents are beautiful.

Soon I was at Robin's Grove which is carpeted with snowdrops.

Beautiful, and a sure sign that spring is on the way.

I also wore my newly finished lacy shawl earlier this week - it has tiny beads hooked into it (which are actually more visible in real life as they twinkle slightly).

I can't really wear many hand knitted things for work, but I can get away with nice scarves and shawls - this one will be worn a lot I'm sure.

A Touch of Lace

Whilst sitting around giving the needle eating cat lots of attention and cuddles I've managed to finish a knitted lace shawl/scarf.

It's a beautiful, fine, baby alpaca and silk yarn from Eden Cottage Yarns which I bought at the Knitting and Stitching show in October.

The pattern is from Ravelry (Daisy Chain Shawl)

I've never used beads in knitting before but they were surprisingly easy to do and add a nice weight and slight sparkle to it.  There's one in the centre of each flower and one at the end of each point.

And just as I was wondering what I could knit next the latest Brooklyn Tweed pattern book fell into my inbox, so that sorted that one out - new yarn ordered and pattern downloaded, oh and more knitting needles ordered as despite having a drawer full I don't have the right size ones to knit Merle (how can that be?)!

As for said cat, he's fine, 100%!  Enjoying a little snooze in amongst some fabric earlier on

Take One

Take one skein of very soft 4 ply merino wool in colour way 'Finch' (from Meadow Yarn),

add a couple of weeks and several many stitch markers,

and you end up with a crumpled looking mess!

Now add a couple of days of severe blocking,

and voila, the crumpled mess turns into a lacy shawl.

It's very soft and pretty and I'm looking forward to wearing it on a lovely warm evening.  Soon I hope :-)

Holes, holes, holes.

One of the things that I love about textiles is holes and what is revealed underneath them.  A combination of being inspired by the cover technique of this book

Image courtesy of Amazon

and then watching the BBC production of Great Expectations over Christmas and being fascinated by the wonderful Miss Havisham

Image courtesy of  The Telegraph

made me want to have a play and see what I could create.

I'm not sure if it's finished or what I'll do with it, but I do quite like the holes and the fragility of it (although it's ended up pinker than I was expecting) and it does resemble a piece of old fabric from a worn out dress.

Fragile Lace (18cm x 15cm)

The top layer is Crash fabric which I stencilled onto using soft molding paste before blasting it to distress it and make the holes.

The base layer is silk scrim and silk carrier rod strippings and it's held together with beads and french knots.

Detail from above

I'm not sure what this fascination with holes says about me, or where this technique might go, but I think it's something I will return to.