The Levada Shawl

I don't always know why I make what I do.  

Sometimes the catalyst is beautiful yarn and other times, the pattern is the clincher. 

When I decided to knit the Op-Art Shawl*, (which is a free pattern from Blacker Yarns designed by Sonja Bargielowska) I believe it was a fusion of subliminal factors bringing together special skeins and the perfect pattern imbued with happy holiday memories.

In April this year, Geoff and I went on a walking holiday to Madeira to celebrate our silver wedding.  Madeira's an autonomous region of Portugal though it's over 500 miles from Lisbon and directly west of Morocco in the Atlantic.  We both love Portugal and aren't sit-on-the-beach types, so a bit of a hike each day whilst being pampered in luxury hotels was a combination which suited us both!

As well as walking, we had a hurl on the famous Madeira toboggan in the capital, Funchal!

Blues and greens suffuse the landscape and Portuguese influences are evident throughout the island.

Greenery abounds in the lush forest-clad mountains.  Natural waterfalls and man-made water channels create ever-moist habitats, encouraging abundant plant life and ferny foliage.

Levadas are the sinuous water channels created to irrigate the drier more populous south of Madeira from the wetter north of this mountainous island.  Originally hewn precariously by hand as long ago as the 15th century, some levadas were made as recently as the 1940's.  Still providing essential water supply, and now hydroelectric power, they create a network of breathtaking paths for walkers.  A head for heights certainly helps!



Can you see where this is leading?



My stitches echo the winding levada paths.

And the colours of my wool evoke the beautiful landscape of Madeira.  I began with a deep turquoisey blue from Ripples Crafts, hand dyed by my friend Helen.

Helen and her special anniversary edition Cochrane yarn

I required lots of green so incorporated two colours from Caroline, my knitting buddy, who spun and dyed the gorgeous shades on the left and gifted them to me at Christmas.  The vibrant emerald skein on the right came from local yarn shop Baa in Stonehaven where lovely Lindsay (pictured below with a basket of her gorgeous handspun) sells her yarn and handknits in aid of cancer charities.

I still wanted more green and met up with Tania at Aberdeen Yarn Fest in June and chose her Shorelines and Strata yarn to add to the shawl.

I held Lindsay's emerald merino together with a strand of Helen's Ripples Crafts Laceweight  to enhance the widest edge. 

 

So my knitting begins and ends with ripples of stitches from Ripples Crafts - what could be more appropriate for a shawl evocative of the rippling levadas of Madeira?

 
Ah, happy times!

* The Op Art Shawl from Blacker Yarns plays with perspective in simple shapes like the art movement from the 1960's. It's a large asymmetric triangle ideal for wrapping around yourself, complete with classic old shale lace patterning, short rows to create a shape within a shape and an elegant i-cord edge.

Perth Festival of Yarn - What happened to my haul?

According to the Urban Dictionary, the top definition of the word 'haul' is shopping spree and there's nothing quite like a yarn festival for indulging in a spot of retail therapy if you're as fond of yarn as I am.

So here's my haul from last year's Perth Festival of Yarn - but what has become of this pile of wonderful wool, crafty kits and knitterly notions, one year on?

Let's start with the Adventures In Yarn mini notebook and pencil from Popcorn and Crocodiles.  These were a present for a local knitting friend who wasn't able to make it to Perth last September.  She was very happy with her gift!

Emily (left) is the lady behind Popcorn and Crocodiles - Katherine (right) provides support and endless smiles!

I'm happy too, surrounded by all this fibre.  Here's me smiling as I clutch three jewel-toned balls of lambswool I bought at the J C Rennie stand at PYF.  And here's an even happier me in the Korat sweater I knitted from Carol Feller's pattern with them in January.  I wrote a blog post about this jumper here.

I bought four skeins from Northern Ireland's Giddy Aunt Yarns of multicoloured BFL sport weight wool.  These became the Islay cardigan by Gudrun Johnston over the course of several week's knitting in May and June.  My chosen colourway of Giddy Aunt's beautiful hand dyed yarn is 'Woodstock'and I love it!  

It's not had much wear over the summer but yesterday in Aberdeenshire felt decidedly autumnal and I was glad of my new woolly cardy with its wooden heart buttons.

A further purchase was a needle felting kit from Little Gem Felts for a glasses case.  I made a start on this over the summer but it's still a work in progress (and possibly the subject of a future blog post!)  

I have yet to decide what to do with my treasured skein of yarn from Stranded Dyeworks.  This was the special colourway dyed by Amy of Stranded for Perth Festival of Yarn 2018 and I'm happy to wait for the right project, and perhaps the right accompanying yarn, to inspire me.  Meanwhile, I like pairing it up with possible companions in the craft room.

Finally, Helen of Dundee based Giddy Yarns (not to be confused with the aforementioned Giddy Aunt Yarns from over the Irish Sea) gave me a stitch marker when we were chatting at the festival.  It's helpfully keeping my place for me as I work on my current crochet shawl.

Reviewing the goodies from the haul I brought home from Perth has reminded me what a fun day out I enjoyed a year ago just now.  It's also reminded me of the enjoyment my purchases have brought me, and others, over the past 12 months, as well as the future joy I'll derive from wearing my hand-knits.

I hope you'll have a great time too if you're attending Perth Festival of Yarn 2019 on 7th and 8th September - Little Gem Felts, Giddy Yarns and Giddy Aunt Yarns will be vending again this year.  

Let's hope you return home with a great haul too!