There has been quite a break since my last blog post. Major life changes have taken place, as well as major World events. I stopped blogging, when an opportunity that I could not pass up presented itself. A yarn store was for sale. After much discussion, my husband and I thought this was too good not try and give it a go. We ended up purchasing it, with me running it full time. Things went well. I was bringing in some new indie dyers and trunk shows. Unfortunately, COVID took over everything. We had to shut down for a couple of months, and things never picked back up once we reopened. We missed the annual yarn crawl that was a huge part of the summer for all the local stores here. We decided to permanently close, since we needed summer money to make it through winter, and it wasn't going to happen. I know we were one of so many small businesses facing the same issues. My husband and I are both ok with everything that happened, and actually are using it as an excuse to start over. The housing market has gone crazy here in Colorado, so we decided to sell, and pick a new place to live. We chose Knoxville, and will be moving there next week!
On to the topic of this post! I decide to talk about the Butterfly/Papillon shawl by Marin Melchior. This was such a fun knit. It was unlike anything I had made previously.
I wanted to use one yarn for the color changes. I picked Schoppel-Wolle Zauberball® Crazy in the Marsexperiment colorway. I used two balls for the whole project. The colors changed so well in this pattern. I couldn't have picked a more perfect yarn for this. I have seen a lot of these shawls that are very bright, but I wanted a more muted color palette.
I wanted a pretty neutral color for the solid lines. I used BC Garn Semilla in the Grau colorway for this. I believe I needed four skeins. It was a nice light grey. It worked well to break up the darker colors of the Zauberball. One thing I like about this pattern is that it's easy to work with different yarns together. The Zauberball is a fingering weight, and the Semilla is a sport weight. They worked really well together, and I never had a problem using the different weights. I actually think having a slightly heavier weight of the grey helped it pop a little more.
I have to say this is one of the best, if not the best, patterns that I have used. It is so incredibly detailed. You get stitch counts for every row that has increases, which is a majority of rows. She also keeps the count to 10 stitch increments for most of it. It does vary on the ends and centers where the increases take places. This also makes having to count a large amount of stitches so much easier. You can count by stitch markers, and not really have to keep a running count in your head as you knit. You will definitely need to make sure you have LOTS of markers by the end of this.
I also like she mentions in the pattern not to read ahead. It is a very large pattern, and it could easily overwhelm someone that may not be used to a pattern like this. Taking it row by row, it is very clear on what should be done. Also, once you get some time with this pattern, you start noticing how the short rows fall withing the markers and will see if you are off somewhere. This pattern is made with short rows....lots and lots of short rows....
I really enjoyed this pattern. I could see making another one, or making on of the various other versions of it. There is now a pancho, cowl, and blanket.
I am going to try and keep blogging! I have many projects I finished since my last post, and I will add current projects as I go. Thank you for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed this, and let me know if you have any questions. I will try my best to answer them. Please subscribe if you would like to stay updated with any future posts.
