Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Irish Memories

I've been on a shawl kick recently! Last year was the year of socks, this year I'm all about the shawls again (I started my knitting addiction with shawls). My recent FO shawl is Westknits Vertices Unite, what a friggin' amazing pattern! Stephen West is a genius. Plain and simple, I'm not sure I've knit from another designer who is so innovative! I'm a bit of a fangirl and have knit 6 Westknits patterns, I don't think I've knit that many patterns from any other designer. And, I'm not sorry about it.


The yarn I used was all purchased on my trip to Ireland in January of 2015. What an amazing trip! I stayed with a friend from college and was in the country for 10 days. It was freezing cold, this central California girl was shocked by the cold, but it was a great trip. The yarn I used was Dublin Dye and Life in the Long Grass LITLG, both companies that dye in Ireland. I bought them all with the intention of making a shawl, I just wasn't sure which one.


Vertices has sections of striping, solids, short rows, increases and decreases, live stitches, and picking up for an i-cord bind-off. I loved seeing how Stephen's brain works, this pattern was complex but brought me so much knitting joy! It made my brain work and kept me entertained.


I made the large size and the shawl turned out exactly how I wanted it too. It's more like a cardigan/wrap hybrid than a shawl. It's amazing! The names of my colorways were (A) Winters Sea, (B) Coastal, (C) Smoke Monster, (D) Quiet Forest, and (E) Emerald Eve. The only change I made to the pattern was using color C for the i-cord bind-off verses color D (C matched better with the rest of the shawl than D did). I used US 4 needles and 1,240 yards of fingering weight yarn! In my Rav notes I have weighted out how much (in yardage) I used of each color in case anyone wants to use scraps and need a yardage estimate.


This was not a long project, looking at my Rav stats, it took me 15 days from cast on to blocking. I raced through it to get to each new section. I'm making another trip to Europe starting in the middle of June this year and my Irish Memories will definitely be making the journey with me in place of a cardi.


Little secret, I've got another Westknits shawl on the needles right now! Anyone have suggestions for the perfect travel knitting patterns? I'm thinking 2 pairs of socks and 2 shawls. Let me know of some awesome patterns I should bring with me! Here's some photos from my trip to Ireland! This beautiful country inspired my shawl.


Cliffs of Moher 


Giants Causeway, Northern Ireland


Irish cemetery and church


Dark Hedges, Northern Ireland


Guinness Factory, Dublin 

2 comments:

  1. What a beautiful shawl! I love your colour choices. It will look great on you.

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    1. I adore the colors of this shawl, totally the color pallet for my trip to Ireland. I, 98% of the time, buy yarn that works for my hair and skin tone because most of my knitting is for me.

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