The ‘fruit salad’ shawl finished

It's got a bit cooler (thank goodness), but it's still not really the weather for standing in the sun wearing something woolly! But I have finished my Dandelion Air shawl, so it must be recorded.

Yes, I was a bit warm!

There's not a lot to say that I haven't said already. The pattern is a simple six-row repeat, and I just kept going until I judged that I should stop.

Yarn Chicken time, had I left enough?

The pattern has an i-cord bind off, but I chose to do picots instead. I did insert a lifeline a couple of rows before the bind off, so I could rip it all back if necessary.

Phew, yes I had

It blocked larger than I was expecting; the overall area is a fair bit more than my Close to You shawl, which is made from the same yarn.

Showing the full size

When I first started knitting, I knew very little about yarn choice beyond weight. It was pure luck that I chose to knit my Dahlia shawl in a yarn with a very subtle colour variation, which allowed the lace design to be the star of the show.

The Dahlia yarn - mostly blue, a little black

This yarn is far more variegated however, and definitely needed quite a plain design to show off the colours. The Dandelion Air pattern was perfect for the job.

Reds and yellows and pinks, oh my!

The pattern lets the colours shine

It must be said that it's not my neatest work. In particular the tension in the centre spine stitches varies hugely.

That's a lot of different stitch sizes

It gets better further down

It's not surprising, really. A lot of this was knitted while I was visiting Mum, either in hospital or the nursing home, so it regularly got put down mid-row as I attended to something. But for all that, I do associate knitting it with the laughter and happy conversations we had over those last months rather than the more fraught times. I'm certainly glad that I chose to use up such a cheery yarn from my stash at that point in our lives.

Where you find it

I am back to hospital visiting on an almost daily basis, and when that is finished, I will be spending a lot of time visiting my mum at home. Dressmaking isn't the most portable of pastimes, so I can see a lot of knitting getting done. (It's a good job I have a few projects planned!)

I've been working away on my Dandelion Air shawl over the last few weeks, even taking it with me when I go to visit Mum, and squeezing in a cheeky row or two while we chat. (Annoyingly, the train journey is far too bumpy for knitting - note to Transport for Wales: please fix this!) Initially the colourway of the yarn reminded me of carousel horses, but knitted up it's more like a particularly jaunty fruit salad. Either way, it's nice to be working with something so bright and cheery just now.

On a circular needle - I did learn from my past mistake!

Several of the other ladies on Mum's ward knit, so they were keen to see what I was up to. One was especially taken with my yarn holder.

It rotates as you pull on the yarn

It's meant to hang from the wrist, but I found it a bit of a distraction there so I push it up towards my elbow, which is perfect. When I'm at home, I hang it from my work lamp. Mine came from the annual yarn fair in Port Sunlight, but I have since found them for sale online.

Because the work in progress prompted so much interest, I ended up wearing my Reyna, Close to You and Blue Dahlia shawls on different visits. None of my friends knit, so it was lovely to have an opportunity to chat about all things woolly with some other knitters, albeit in unexpected circumstances.

Diamond and triangle

Time to start making Butterick 3794 in my 'proper' fabric. It's Jane Ecovero viscose challis from Atelier Brunette. Things did not get off to the best start when I gave it a (very cool) pre-wash, and it went from being 140cm wide to nearer 130cm! I managed to coax it back to around 134cm, but this still required a few adjustments to the cutting layout. Thank goodness I had bought a bit extra.

Squeezing the pattern pieces in (with migraine tablets unintentionally to hand)

Other than that hiccup, it has all gone fairly smoothly so far, probably helped by the fact that this was my third time making the bodice. The difference this time was that I made up and attached the central quilted diamond panel - and decided to ignore the pattern instructions.

The method given is to quilt the fabric onto wadding, cut out the panel with a seam allowance, sew it to the dress right sides together, and turn the seam allowances into the centre. A lining panel is then sewn over the raw edges.

Nope

Even with trimming and grading, this gives two layers of wadding along the seam, with more at the points, and seemed likely to be very bulky. So instead I cut the wadding to the size of the finished panel, then folded the fabric seam allowance over and overcast it onto the wadding.

Demonstrated on the mock-up because I forgot to photograph the 'proper' version!

Then I basted this onto the dress. There were already three rows of basting holding the pleats in position, plus two rows of tailor tacks for making the pleats, so that made for a lot of tacking thread - all of which had to be painstakingly removed afterwards.

Baste-o-rama

I slip-stitched the panel into place, and then overcast all the edges to make them lie a little flatter.

Completed apart from the lining

As with the mock-up, I used machine embroidery thread for the quilting. This time however it was intended to contrast rather than blend in, so I had to be even more precise in my stitching. To really tie in with the dress fabric, I alternated beige and green threads, and then discovered to my chagrin that the difference in colours is invisible on the completed piece. As ever, at least I will know that it's there.

It is two different colours, honestly!

I'm still not convinced that having what looks like either a tiny eiderdown or part of an even tinier barrage balloon attached to your midriff is the last word in haute couture, but that's the eighties for you!

I cannot shift these images from my brain

So that's a lot about the diamond, what about the triangle?

Having finished my cardigan, I need a new knitting project to take when I visit my mum. And dull grey February days call for something cheery. So I'm knitting up my Leaf Peeping yarn from Ewe and Ply. Somehow, it had caked up looking like two entirely different yarns.

Two for the price of one

The original plan was to make another Close to You shawl, but I decided that I didn't really need two of the same pattern in the same yarn, albeit different colourways. Happily for me, Stories of Small Things, who knits lovely shawls, had recently posted her Dandelion Air on Instagram, and it looked like an ideal pattern to show off the colours of this yarn. And it is.

38 rows in

However horrible it may be outside, it's impossible not be cheered up by knitting a couple of rows of this jaunty fruit salad of wool!