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Tuesday 11 April 2017

2017 Boo Challenge: Kindred Spirit

Well knock me down with a feather I've only gone and finished shawl number six of my Boo shawl challenge!

Just to mix things up a little I set aside the beads, took a break from lace and chose Kindred Spirit for my 6th shawl.
As soon as I saw this pattern I knew it would be a perfect showcase for some of my handspun yarn as well as using up some of the mohair in my stash.  This yarn is particularly special as it was actually years in the making so I'm very glad to use it!
The fibre was a sparkly BFL blend that I bought years ago and began spinning on a drop spindle, long before I even thought of buying a wheel.  The fibre had lovely long chunks of colour so when I finshed spinning it I decided to try my hand at chain plying to preserve the colour changes.  Long story short, that did not go well and my next 'logical' move was to pre-chain the singles before adding the twist separately once it had all been chained.  Yep.  Unsurprisingly any enthusiasm I had for that task wore off quickly and the whole thing got set aside for a very long time.  Eventually I mastered chain plying on the wheel, plyed up the section of prechained singles and the chain plyed the rest as I went.  Happily it turned out really nicely, the colours are perfect and the yarn has a really lovely shimmer to it.  I chose some black mohair from the stash to complement it for this shawl.
Because this was handspun I didn't want to waste a single yard which led to me carelessly not leaving enough to complete the border properly.  Whoops!  I considered switching to the contrast yarn and continuing but in the end I just decided to go with a shortened border and I think it looks fine.  I was beginning to lose interest by that point any way - obviously missing my lace and beads!  This is a lovely shawl anyhow, perfect for when I need something a bit snugglier than lace but still slightly sheer and delicate looking.  I'd like to make this again with less contrast between the main and contrast yarn for a very different look.  All in all I'm very happy, but excuse my while I go break out the beads for the next one!

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