My second attempt was far better. I love the painterly colours of the yarn, and the beads add something extra to the border. The Corriedale/mohair yarn is very different from the merino/yak mix of the first shawl though, and a non-fluffy version of Close to You remained, vaguely, on my to-do list.
So when I went back to Edinburgh in the summer of course my trip included a visit to Kathy's Knits, and of course I came out with wool. All of Kathy's stock is sourced from small, independent farms and producers from within the British Isles with, naturally, an emphasis on Scottish producers. I bought one skein of lace yarn from Ripple Crafts, and this.
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| Front and back of the skein from Abercairn Yarns |
It's the same 4ply BFL/silk yarn that I used as the main colour of my Lothian shawl, this time in shade Glen Gyle, and the colours feel like a skein custom-dyed to my exact specifications: a blue base, with an assortment of rich, jewel-like hues thrown in. Plus, the silk content gives it all an extra lustre.
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| Knitted up |
It was the perfect yarn for a new Close to You, and I cast it on a few weeks ago. The yarn is a joy to work with, and one of my favourite things working with it is seeing the range of colours in the stitches on the needle.
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| A pool of blue, then lots of different colours |
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| I love the variations |
Abercairn Yarns is based in the Scottish Highlands, and I was intrigued by the shade name - is there actually a Glen Gyle? There is, almost. Glengyle Water flows into Loch Katrine in Stirlingshire.
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| Loch Katrine and Glengyle |
The 100g skein is undoubtedly generous, so I'm expecting to get at least one extra pattern repeat out of it. It's going to be a while before I have a finished shawl to post about, but I can already tell that the end result is going to get a lot of wear.
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