Born Stripy

Today's shawl is slightly different. My current enthusiasm is for stripy shawls combining more than one yarn. This one was born stripy.

My friend Katie has just taken the brave step of setting up her own fibre business. Her speciality is combing and blending fibres into interesting roving so of course I had to give it a try. I bought one called embers which is a blend of orange, red and yellow merino with a little alpaca, a little silk and a few sparkles thrown in for good measure.

I haven't spun with such an array of fibres all in the one roving before so I was pleasantly surprised at how easy the fibre was to spin and very soon had a respectable hank of fingering weight yarn.

As the yarn has quite a lot going on I decided that I wanted to choose a pattern that didn't fight with the yarn but also had some interest. The Holden Shawlette seemed to fit the bill.

The stocking stitch body allows the yarn to show off its essential stripyness. I was really pleased at how even and consistently random the striping was - the sign of a good blend.

The lace patterned edge allowed me to play with the striping a little. It was good to see that the pattern and yarn didn't overpower each other.

All in all this was a quick and very satisfying project. I have to say that I usually shy away from fibre that has sparkle in it but to Katie's credit she adds it with a light touch - light enough even for a confirmed wool lover like me. I think this shawl will be a cosy and bright addition to an autumn outfit. But first let's have a bit more summer please!

Katie has written a lovely piece on this project here.http://the-view-from-the-hill.blogspot.com/2011/07/finished-objects.html