Sea Foam

I love poking around charity shops, especially the book sections. But it is quite surprising how rarely I find any knitting books. I did find this brilliant Vogue book for only a few pounds. It has big sections on designing garments, and pages and pages of stitches and techniques. Happy evening reading!

I was gifted two balls of Noro Taiyo, which is Aran weight, and decided that it would make a little shoulder shawl for my mum. Sometimes wool is so beautiful that it can just speak for itself, and doesn't need a fancy pattern. She is a big fan of green and yellow shades, so it seemed perfect.

So I have just knitted a big block of Sea Foam stitch, which I learned from my new book. I am not certain if I can count this as lacey knitting, although it is close. My mum came to stay earlier in the summer, and I had hoped to photograph her wearing her new shawl. But it took longer than I had planned, so I was frantically knitting and running in ends in the back of the car on her journey home.

Granny's Shawl

I've been knitting so many little things recently, I fancied a bit of big (for me!) knitting. My mum was saying that she would like a little shawl to put around her shoulders, or even over her knees in the cold weather, so this is what I have made. 

It is knitted from a free pattern available on Craftsy, called Lacey Zig Zag Shawl. I think perhaps I should have picked a brighter colour, but my mum is very much a green lady, so I am hoping she will like it. She doesn't get it until the weekend, but she is not a computer user so I can be safe that she won't see it here. 

The wool I used is Rowan Calmer, and I just kept knitting until I ran out. This was a fairly easy knit, with just two rows repeating. It is quite nice just to settle into a knit and not have to refer to the pattern. And after my big knit, I will probably return to something little and fiddly ...