Just the weather for a shawl

Oh September and October, you have been so full of horrible illness for this little family... it started with the cold P got in the first week of term, which he then lovingly shared, followed by yet more colds, a bout of flu and now a persistent cough for me that is proving rather tiresome. The garden still needs autumnal attention, the house needs a thorough clean. Yuk. The good thing about October though is the regular necessity of a shawl again

This was my introduction to Helen Stewart's patterns... the Spindrift Shawl, knitted last wintertime. I think I chose this one to knit first as the pattern is rather generously provided for free once you sign up to an email workshop.

I really like the way Helen's patterns are written - my current swim project is another of Helen's shawls, and the format of the patterns mean that I can easily keep track of rows even when being a good Mummy and glancing up to see how P is doing in training. So much support is available in the Ravelry Spindrift group (another thing common to Helen's patterns and particularly useful and motivating for the more complex Snowmelt Shawl).

I had been saving the precious remains of my first skein of dreamy Cosmic Strings (used to knit a pair of yet-to-be-blogged wristwarmers, made probably a year ago. How remiss) and this gorgeous single ply merino yarn has made such a soft shawl. The pretty colourway is rose garden, purchased summer 2016, so most likely no longer available but I know that I could happily buy many skeins of their yarn each time I look, so no doubt there will be some gorgeous colourway to tempt you. The wristwarmers meant that I had to combine a second yarn, though normally this would be a one skein pattern. I knit the wristwarmers with a contrast rib (reminder to dig them out from the bottom of the knits basket and photograph them) in a 4 ply though I think the Cosmic Strings yarn is more of a lightweight 4 ply, so for this shawl I paired it with the similar weight Coop Knits socks yeah in Danburite.

I'm off to cosy up with another October highlight - cinnamon tea. Yum