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I recorded today’s podcast a bit early, in preparation for my visit to Iceland…but as you might know if you’ve been following along on Instagram, airline troubles meant that our Scandinavian vacation turned into a London staycation! I’m still delighted that the anticipation of the trip spurred me on to finally finish a long-standing WIP: my Reyka pullover. In this episode I share some of the helpful colourwork resources that helped me get there, recap my remaining WIPs, and daydream about something else I’d really love to cast on.
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Meadow Yarn is an inviting online retailer selling yarn, needles and notions. It’s a small, family business based in rural Suffolk in the UK. Meadow Yarn was born out of a passion for beautiful yarn and knitting accessories and aims to bring you a range of great products. Yarns stocked include Northbound Knitting, Eden Cottage Yarn, the Fibre Co and many more.
Show Links:
Reyka Pullover by Cirilia Rose
Great YouTube video by Knit Purl Hunter on catching floats
Colour dominance technique blog post by Ysolda
TECHknitting post on two-colour two-handed knitting
Starting Point MKAL by Joji Locatelli
Pure Joy Shawl by Joji Locatelli
Reyka Pullover by Cirilia Pullover
Ice Cream Sundae Cardigan by Julie Sunshine
Yesterday I revealed the second shawl in this season of The Shawl Society. It’s called Sprite’s Fen, and I’m so happy to be able to share it with you. I think it really embodies the theme of magic running through the season, and I am all anticipation to see what you do with it.
Blithe, wise, and sparkling with vitality, sprites play with the power of elemental forces. Their task is to animate nature, to take lifeless matter and breathe joy into it. They watch over the forests of earth, dance on the winds and sing through fire, but the most famous sprites of all are the water sprites. Some rule the oceans as sirens, others frolick in fresh water springs and pools as naiads and nymphs, but a few choose quieter waters, making their homes in shallow marshes and fens.
The idea of an animating spirit taking up housekeeping in a peaceful wetland is not as strange as it may seem. Beneath the surface, these are rich, fertile, often-overlooked scraps of wilderness. The Sprite’s Fen Shawl honours the breath of life that runs through the apparently calm waters of a fen. A generous semi-circular shape, it is rich with texture and interest. Garter ripples and streams of eyelet bubbles alternate with the gentle waves of of a beautiful, deceptively simple lace stitch. The pattern is written to work with fingering-weight or lace-weight yarn, giving you plenty of options for a lovely, lightweight summer shawl. Choose a lovely gradient to reflect the shifting shades of water under light, or go with a rich solid to call the mind the still waters which run deep beneath the water lilies. With a sprite’s passion for colour and beauty, it’s hard to go wrong.
Guarded by a loving sprite, a fen works its magic as a place of safety and refreshment for small living things. It is a nesting spot, where new life can dabble in the shallow water and the shelter of reeds. It is also where water, tainted by its travels through the mundane world, is filtered and cleansed by an intricate lacework of roots. There is a thrill to be found in this quiet alchemy, something we discover again with each new project we attempt. A fistful of yarn becomes a treasured object. A grey afternoon becomes a cherished interval of stitching and dreaming. As knitters and makers, we know the sprite’s joy in taking something that is purely potential and transforming it into something full of life and love.
This is the fingering weight version in Seven Sisters Arts Matrika, using the Water Gardens Varigradients Set.
And here’s the laceweight version in lovely Julie Asselin Merletto, Birch colourway.
If this shawl is stealing your heart, you are more than welcome to join us in The Shawl Society! Some members knit a shawl a month, but many more go at their own pace, popping in to share on the Ravelry group or Instagram as they have time. If you’d like to jump on board, just buy yourself a copy of The Shawl Society Season II on Ravelry.
You can also learn more aboout the society, take a peek at last season, and read special features and interviews over at the The Shawl Society Website!
That wraps up the show notes for this episode. Chat to you next week!
