A marvelous combination!
Here we present a new design by Dee with a new yarn by Freia Handpaints. Well, these are new to us and the math of this -- the 1 gorgeous pattern + 1 stunning yarn = 1 phenomenal shawl -- is certainly unique to us.
Let me take this one step at a time. First about the yarn:
This lace yarn is a blend of 75% wool from Colorado spun with 25% nylon for added strength. It is soft -- and though a superwash, we recommend hand washing for longevity.
The colorways we offer here are specially dyed by Freia Handpaints in a most unusual way. This type they call ombré and has smooth, slow color gradations. This particular Ombré yarn is available in a 75 gram (2.64 ounce) balls with 590 meters (645 yards) in each. Tina (the amazing dyer) carfeully transitions four or five colors per ball making for very long, yet still dramatic color changes.
The photos of the yarn are pretty accurate, and although the balls of yarn look different one to the next, all in one photo are of the same colorway, simply starting the range of colors at a different end.
About the pattern: And here I quote Dee, in her description: Alexandra is a top-down, triangular lace shawl with great texture and bold design. This shawl was designed specifically for fingering weight, hand-dyed yarn, although the design will look lovely knitted up in solid colors as well.
Alexandra is offered as a 15-page (note here that we will print this out for you and send you the hard copy), charted pattern with large, easy-to-read charts and detailed instructions on how to use them. Even knitters who have not previously used charts should find these user-friendly and simple to comprehend.
The size is easily customizable from shawlette to full size shawl, with two different body designs available.
Gorgeous.
Now you will note that the original shawl was done in fingering weight yarn. And this yarn we have here is a lace weight.
Well, when Cindersall, our amazing Ravelry moderator, offered to test knit one of these gorgeous Frei Lace weight yarns for us, she gravitated towards the Alexandra design. And so, as they say, the rest was history.
Using size 4 needles, instead of the size 5 which was used with the original, Cindersall used exactly 585 yards and created a shawl that is 56" across by 26" deep. She wrote me that it looks very nice, and feels like wool.
She did mention though that some bright blue dye ran into the water when she was soaking it prior to blocking. The dye did not bleed onto other pats of the colorway and it did not rub off onto her hands while knitting -- there simply was some excess which came out when soaked in cool water. Blue is the second least stable dye, after red, and this often happens with handpainted yarns. I don't think this will be a problem at all but I wanted to make sure you knew that this was a possibility.
The shawl photos that you see on this page are of Cindersall's Alexandra, as knit in Atlantis, a glorious melding of sea colors : turquoise and variations on sea greens. You can also see the yarn by itself in the second photo on this page.
This is extremely limited unfortunately -- we only got a few to try out to begin with.
Each kit will include the pattern plus one ball of the yarn .
And here's to a great adventure and lots of fun!
