The Tale of Two Shawls

Shawl #1 - Birch Leaf

The photo above was taken in Minneapolis on a rather sprinkly, cloudy day. It is of a shawl created by Susan Gutperl named Birch Leaf Shawl aka Bottom Up Birch. Susan, my Minneapolis knit buddy (not to be confused with the designer), showed me the pattern and the one she made. I fell in love with it for a couple of reasons. First the pattern is relatively easy but the effect is impressive. Second the pattern lets the knitter use up every possible bit of yarn because of the bottom up construction.

My Birch Leaf is made with three 50 gram skeins of Bella Lino by Classic Elite Yarns in the colourway of Patio. This yarn is 58% linen, 26% viscose and 16% cotton meaning it was a bit stiff to knit with but softens up nicely once it is blocked and worn. It ". . . is a lightweight yarn that creates an airy fabric with long, harmonious stripes". You can clearly see the long stripes in the photo above. To avoid bad pooling I used two different cakes as the shawl grew longer.

The new manager at my condo is now the proud owner of Birch Leaf; she has the perfect figure and colouring to wear it. I am glad Birch Leaf is living with someone who really wanted her.

Shawl #2 - Anisette

Anisette is moving right along as well. To repeat, it is being made with Lang Yarns Merino 400 in colours 796.0010 and 796.0035. Once I converted the written word to a chart, things really started moving along. ( I'm not talking about it every day because it is a long repeating work. But I wanted you to know it is not being neglected. This one has a real deadline and it is approaching.)

Anisette calls for 18 repeats of Rows 28-41 and I have 10 repeats completed so far (not all are showing on the photo). Oh you are such a keen observer. Yes indeed there has been a tonal change in the colour of blue yarn. As it happens I did not have enough of the steely navy blue so I added a lighter version of it. The plan is to finish again with the darker blue so that the two ends match. Both blues will work well with the dress that it is being made to match.

There you have it, two shawls for the price of one post!

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