Two More Shawls….Yvaine and Nikolai

I can’t believe how quickly each week rolls around which means it’s time for another blog post to share with you. Writing inspiring posts each week for all to enjoy is sometimes a challenge so I can only hope you’re enjoying reading about my knitting projects and my other incidental fibre and yarn stories.

I’m on a shawl knitting roll! I can’t believe how many I’ve made over the last few months. The latest two are the Yvaine Shawl and the Nikolai Shawl. I’ll start with the Yvaine Shawl.

This pattern is incredibly easy and would be ideal for a beginner.

The only ‘fault’ I found with this pattern was that it started looking a bit boring as it only had sections of garter and seed stitch so I jazzed it up with two lots of two rows of K2tog, YO and added a picot bind off. My aim was to use the entire skein of yarn so I was able to add a lot more to the shawl. I must say that I am quite happy with the result.

This is a wonderfully portable project too as there’s no difficult stitches to memorise and you could knit it with whatever sized sections of garter and seed stitch as you wish.

Here’s a good close up of the K2tog, YO and picot bind off.

The yarn I used is Zen Yarn Garden Serenity 20 which is a 70% superwash merino / 20% cashmere / 10% nylon yarn and it is so beautifully soft against your skin. Ironically when I first blogged about this yarn in November last year I had this pattern in mind. I still have one skein left too! This yarn is part of Zen Yarn Garden’s ART WALK Series which features a painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir entitled “Roses” which inspired this colourway.

My second shawl is called Nikolai and I love this pattern!

Doesn’t the border look lovely?

It’s another easy knit with lots of garter stitch.

The yarn I used is Sullivans Aztec which is a worsted / 10 ply 45% alpaca / 35% acrylic / 20% nylon yarn and for a commercial yarn it is really soft and snuggly. I have since managed to pick up more of this yarn in the colours Ginger and Tomato for only 49c a ball!! It’s an exceptional yarn.

I love this rich shade of dark green. It reminds me of a forest.

Now I just need to keep track of all my scarves and shawls so that I get to wear them all each winter!

I’m off to one of my absolute favourite pastimes tomorrow; Knit and Knatter. I just love all the chatting, friendship, knitting and laid back atmosphere. That time goes much too quickly I might add.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend filled with lots of fibre goodness.

Until next time…

Melanie