Life is Too Short to Knit with Cheap Yarn

I can't thank you enough dear readers for the extremely kind comments that you left on my last blog post.  It made me realize that I should have shared things like this a long time ago since it made me see I'm not the only one who can feel this way.  Thank you again!

I'm back today with a knitting post.  Sorry to exclude those who don't knit but maybe this post may encourage you to do so.  I taught myself to knit.  It doesn't take a ton of supplies; just patience.

Awhile back my friend Christine shared her raspberry and apple shawl. When I saw the pattern and the gradient yarn, I knew I had to knit one of these shawls.  The pattern is called Wild Poppies by Charlotte Walford.  At first I was hesitant knitting the lace, but Charlotte writes out the lace pattern along with also providing a chart.  This worked great for me, as I need to read the written pattern versus knitting from a chart.  I bought the pattern on Ravelry.

Gradient yarn was a new concept to me since I had never knitted with this type of yarn before.  A popular yarn is The Wool Kitchen.  However, I wanted to make a larger shawl and I found some gradient yarn on etsy.  I love the way the yarn gradually changes colors; it's fascinating to see the change take place.

On Etsy, I found the perfect yarn.  The color is called Romance.  It comes in different lengths, and I bought the 600 meter length.  (I should have bought the 800 meter length if I wanted a larger size shawl).  This yarn is a blend of merino and silk and it was heavenly to knit with it.  I highly recommend this yarn from Wollelfe.  Wollelfe also sells seed beads (size 6/0) which I bought to add to the edging.  And, although it is shipped from Austria, the shipping was very reasonable.

The shawl pattern is originally written for 400 meters with six repeats on the spine of the shawl.  My plan was to do 9 repeats on the spine but unfortunately, I only had enough yarn to complete 8 repeats.  It was great fun doing the lace border.  If you choose to do this pattern, it's a good idea to leave markers on either side of the middle "fan" so that your stitch pattern will stay even.  I added beads to the last fan design.  I also changed spacing of the picot edging and added a picot in the middle of each pattern section, adding one bead as I went along.  The shawl blocked beautiful and it's now going to be given to a dear family friend in Greece.

One last thing, you can find my notes on this shawl on my Ravelry page.  Recently, I realized that the links I leave for Ravelry only work if you have a Ravelry account.  Sorry about that....I will try and add additional links from now on if I can.  Finally, I just had to share this picture of Lilly.  We had a mini heat wave during the day and Lilly insisted to sleep in her padded bed!  She has ignored this bed for months and now, during the warmest time of day, she wanted to sleep there.  Cats are such amazing little creatures!

Oops, almost forgot about my title to this post.  I've so enjoyed discovering new, fancy yarns.  Gone are my days of knitting with Grandma's Red Heart (which I still have), but it is so glorious to knit or crochet with a fine fiber.  Since I'm always on the lookout for a great bargain, I've found many online websites that sell fine yarn at great prices.  Lately, I have as much fun "looking" for the yarn as I do knitting with it!

It's going to be a busy time here at Lilly My Cat.  Hopefully, I can share some fun times with you in the coming weeks.  Thank you again dear friends for visiting Lilly My Cat!

My best wishes to you,

Pat

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