Here comes the sun (flower)

I finished the Sunflower shawl early last week but didn't get it blocked until last weekend. And have not had a chance to blog about it until now!

I actually carried it with me to work on when we went to Cincinnati for our anniversary. Spent many happy hours visiting with old and new friends and knitting. I had a bit of a scare at the end, as the yarn almost ran out and when I was finishing the petals, I had to decrease on both the knit and purl side to avoid running out.

This is how close that was.


That is not a lot of yarn, y'all! I went so far as to contact the woman who dyed the fiber at Corgi Hill Farm to see if she could do me up some more. But thankfully, I made it.


The yarn is handspun BFL/Silk from Corgi Hill Farm fiber. The pattern is Tuscan Sunflower, available on Ravelry. I spun the fiber to a laceweight two ply, spinning each braid separately to preserve the gradient. I used size 7 needles, interchangeable knitpicks variety, almost having a heart attack when one of the cables broke and I lost about 40 stitches. I can't even find where that happened, now, I managed to get them all back. But it was a lace knitter's worst nightmare, especially one who never uses lifelines.
The Ravelry page is here.

I'll just post a bunch of pictures now and let them speak for themselves. It's hands down the prettiest thing I've ever knitted.









The drape and shine of the yarn is incredible, Anna Marie makes the most wonderful fibers to spin and I put the yarn quality down to her. You can't spin bad fiber into beautiful yarn.

Speaking of spinning, I have done a couple of yarns the last week or so. This one is
the lovely Handspun by Stefania corriedale I got at MDSW. It's spun woolen long draw and much better than my first attempt at that technique.



It's over 300 yards and will be hats for my older daughter and her boyfriend.

The second is also an MDSW thing, the batts I got from Spinner's Hill. Nearly 400 yards, a sport weight or so. I am thinking a garter-based shawl with a lacy edging, one just came out in Knitty this week that might suit.


And that's been my last few weeks in crafting!