Oh yes yes yes yes yes!
This is a real beauty from Nim Teasdale.
This shawl is the second piece that she created in her Wanderlust set, a series of designs created while travelling around in a campervan for a year. Brave lady; she traveled with her husband and small children all over Europe. What a marvelous thing to do!
Meanwhile she is also creating. Here is how Nim decribes her new Birdsong:
A bird’s song is made of many parts pieced together, arranged and rearranged continually to make a new song every time. This design follows the same idea, with parts that can be assembled in a variety of ways to create a new shawl every time.
The shawl begins as a triangle then transitions to a crescent, making either a deep crescent or a gentle triangle, depending on the ratio of each part used.
The two different sized feathers can be worked in either order, the feathered edge can be worked straight or alternated to form an elegant eyelet at the end of each feather, and each part of the shawl can be continued as long as you like.
Inspired by many elements: the intensely lush green of the Welsh countryside, the mythology woven into the history of the landscape, the beautiful birdsong we heard everywhere, the magical quality of the yarn, and a cheeky peacock met while wandering around a slumbering castle.
The Yarn
The yarn we offer for this kit is not the same as what Nim used in her original piece.
As with almost all of Nim's creations, the pattern is adaptable to any yardage of lace to fingering weight yarn. The beautiful piece you see here which Nim created used 585.0 yards of a fingering weight yarn.
She writes that this shawl would be beautiful knit with anywhere from 200 yards to 800 yards of yarn.
Our yarns for both of the kits described below is a Shawl Ball from Freia Fibers. This yarn is an already wound disk of 393 meters/430 yards per 100g, 100% US merino.
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Kit A: Blue Velvet --- long color gradient moving from purple into blue into turquoise (or vice versa, depending on how it is wound.
Kit B: Passion -- a new color that is what Tina (the amazing dyer) describes as one of her Watercolor shades. Here is the colors are not one continuous gradient but rather a few changes along the way, all within a single color "story." I would describe this one a tonal play of wine hues, a few close to fuchsia, others close to violet, all gorgeous.
The Beads
Beading is optional, as always.
Nim tells me that it is hard to estimate as there are so many variables in her patterns (how many repeats you choose to do is up to you, as one example).
She estimates that by doing seven repeats of the large feathers and three of the smaller ones, you'd need about 330 beads. On the other hand, if you begin with the smaller feathers, you would end up using more beads.
We are going to include about 35 grams of size 6/0 beads with each kit -- that will give you roughly 420 beads + or - a few. That should stand you in good stead whatever you decide but if you'd like more, let me know.
As far as bead colors, there are lots of choices. If you have a preference, let me know. Otherwise, let me choose for you.
The Pattern
The pattern includes both written pattern or charts.
Note that the kit will not automatically include the pattern.
Some knitters will prefer to get it directly as a PDF file of the pattern from Nim via her Ravelry web page. In that case, make sure the drop-down menu is set to "No Pattern Needed." And if you want the pattern saved in your Ravelry library, this is the way to go.
Alternatively, if you would like a printed copy, then the "Pattern" drop-down menu should be set to that.
We also can set you up with a pdf of the pattern, saved on this website in your account section.
Make your choice via the drop-down menu above.
