Details

Pattern:

Nightshift by Andrea Mowry

Yarn:

Various balls of my handspun from 2018 onwards (incl. some dyed by me too)

1. Baby Camel / Tussah Silk (purples) top from Coastal Colours spun in 2020. It was spun about aran weight and left overs from hat I knitted.
2. Blue Faced Leicester (turquoise / pink), fibre was dyed by me and then spun aran weight in 2019.
3. Blue Faced Leicester / Trilobal Nylon (pale dusty pink) spun about aran weight in 2020. It was dyed to soak up some colour from another dye project!
4. Blue Faced Leicester / Seacell (grey / pink), worsted weight spun in 2021.
5. Merino (perpetual purple) commercial top from Gillian Gladrag, spun worsted weight during Tour de Fleece 2018.
6. Merino / Trilobal Nylon (grey with a touch of yellow) batt from Marie Redding Arts that I made into rolags and then spun aran weight during Tour de Fleece 2019
7. Merino / Trilobal Nylon / Angelina (grey), batt from Marie Redding Arts that I made into rolags and then spun aran weight during Tour de Fleece 2019
8. Merino / Silk / Mohair (sugar plum) a merino/silk blend from World of Wool that I blended with some pink mohair I dyed and then spun aran weight in 2019.
9. Rambouillet (dusty purples) I dyed the fibre and then spun it worsted weight during Brit Spin 2019
10. Whitefaced Woodland (pale dusty pink) this DK handspun was from BritSpin 2019. I used to soak up the remaining dye stock from a dark red project.

Cost:

Pattern: £5.03 (I got 10% off by subscribing to her newsletter).

Yarn: Almost impossible to calculate. Lots of this was spinning practice, or spun as part of BritSpin or Tour de Fleece spinning challenges.

Total (excluding labour): I’m not sure…but not a lot, it’s cheaper to buy fibre and spin it yourself that buying yarn.

Timeline:

Started – 30th March 2022

Finished – 13th April 2022

Link to Ravelry Page

Pattern summary

This is such an enjoyable project to knit. I really loved it but would say the shawl shape is a little off as it’s so long at the front but there’s not much to wrap around. These stitches on a different shaped shawl would be interesting and I may have a go at that if I can work it out.

I went up a needle size to 5.5mm after the first section as the yarns are more aran than worsted weight. To compensate for the larger needle, I skipped 2 increases. I possibly could have coped with 6mm needles, but would have had to have skipped using the yarn that was more DK weight.

I made some mistakes like:

• continuing with the double sized lumps when I changed colour;
• forgetting some increases;
• doing some left leaning increases instead of right;
• I even had one row of double sized bumps with only 1, not 2, stitches between!
• My stitch count is wrong!
• I didn’t finish the 9th repeat of the pattern as I was running out of yarns and it was already so long at the front, although a bit short width wise.

I blocked it and stretched it length wise as much as I could, but didn’t pin it. Despite finishing the project early I’m about right on the width now, but a few inches longer at the front. I wonder whether the issue is my icord edge stitches during the project are a little tight, as given my larger yarn and needles I should have had greater width.

I’m ok with that and didn’t feel the need to fix these mistakes.

Yarn Summary

Well the yarns were all made by me, so a mixed bag really. Some of the yarns were very early practice and so pretty uneven. It ranged from very thin to chunky. If it got to sections that looked like lace weight I cut the yarn and restarted at a thicker part. I only had to do this about 4 times. There’s a mix of woollen and worsted spun, twist angles vary, some is 2 ply and some 3 ply; a real mixed bag of yarns! This pattern was perfect for coping with the variety of yarns and I really can see me making another, but in a different shape.

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