Peachy, Peachy and Waves of Fall Shawls

I love shawls and hope to have one for every day of the year. Even though we live in the south and the weather is hot to mild I can never have enough shawls.

The first pattern is Fiber Trends "Leaf Lace Shawl". I'm using a variegated mercerized cotton I found in Sarajevo (see earlier posting). I purchased the pattern from my fav yarn shop "Unraveled" in Richmond (www.unraveledrichmond.com). It will take forever for me to slow down enough to work on this shawl, but hopefully it will be finished by next summer. The pattern shows the shawl in a solid yarn and variegated yarn.

The next shawl will be of my own design. I've been collecting yarn for this shawl since last year's Fall Fiber Festival in Montpelier VA (link to the right). The first photo is of all of the yarn that will be in the shawl. What a stash. Manasi, you should recognize many of your yarns in here.

Here's the breakdown...

Handspun, handpainted boucle' from my favorite spinner at Monsoon Winds - link to the right. This is a blend of tomato, orange and rust. It is soft as downy.

Next.....Another Monsoon Winds yarn - a heavier weight boucle' with muted shades of peach, yellow and orange

And another Monsoon Winds - this one was a surprise within a purchase... The Monsoon Winds yarn is the small yarn across the Fuzzy Mohair by Dancing Leaf Farm (www.dancingleaffarm.com) from Barnesville, MD. The mohair was the first yarn I purchased at the Fall Fiber Festival. The green ribbon yarns were purchased at Unraveled and are Kristha nylon ribbon from Italy.

Another purchase in Sarajevo - this is Unitas' Mirabela. This yarn was made in Zagreb, Croatia (the Croatia photos in the previous posting were of Zagreb). This is a mercerized cotton and is a medium peach. To the right is another treat from Monsoon Winds - dark rust, red, cooper - thick to thin weight.

Another Fiber Festival find... 100% Australian Superwash Merino from Three Waters Farm in Carrboro, NC (www.threewatersfarm.com). To the left is the Monsoon Winds yarn mentioned directly above and to the right is the first yarn described.

A final Fiber Festival delight from Three Waters Farm - Alpaca/Wool 60/40 bulky boucle'

The final yarn is in the first photo. It is 11 yards of "Tango" that was in a stash from Monsoon Winds (I think?). If you click on the photo you will see it in the upper right nestled between the Three Rivers Farm yarns. It is a bright tomato red with a thread of gold metallic.

As for the design of the shawl I will cool some of these colors with a dark brown from Cascades. My idea is to use the heavier weighted yarns from the neck down gradually descending to the lighter weight yarns. I'll mix stitches to produce a sturdy but airy shawl. This will be completed by this year's Fall Fiber Festival. I may even enter it into competition.

Off to get ready for the 17th Street Farmer's Market in Richmond. Tomorrow will be my first day there. I'll be there a few Saturday's throughout the summer and fall. Hope to see you there.