Cannot stop knitting shawls

The spring came,  turned into summer and fall and arctic winter and once again the full circle … and I was not here to record it. The birds came and went and came, I watched them, let the days go by, with no markings. I knitted, thousands of meters of yarn slipped through my fingers during these absent years, and I did not have the strength nor the desire to report the process. Pandemic came (oh, how I wish I could say … and went) and put everything on unease and worry, big worry and then the war in Europe. Add to the mix normal life with all sudden happenings and concerns and there you have it… now you can fill in all the absent years. It has been little bit difficult to find the place of happiness, of calm, in all this turmoil, but one can’t lose hope for better times. 

It is beautiful, warm summer of July. The hustle and bustle of spring has calmed down, it is this quiet spot of the season, when there is little bit of anticipation of season coming to an end, but not just yet. The water of the lake is warm, the breeze over water is soft, the nights are slowly getting darker, it is the time to breathe and take in all the good of the summer.

But you are here for the knitting, I believe. I cannot go through everything I have done, some of my knits are on my Instagram account (@lmkalve), some are on Ravelry (lenealve). I used to sell few patterns there, but no more. Much work should have gone into updating the patterns and some pattern support as well, and I feel that I am getting old for all that. Now all my knitting is for pure joy and survival!

Stephen West shawls have been my lifeline these past years. Having acquired big stash over few decades, I have huge palette of colors and fibers and I love rummaging through my yarns. Last summer I took yarn dyeing class and had a refresh class this summer, and now I feel that my stash is even more usable than before. I have plenty of colors that need color baths and then they are all new again. If you have a stash and there colors that don’t appeal to you anymore, I highly recommend getting acid dyes and bathing those colors. It is always interesting to knit through yarn that you have dyed yourself. I was reluctant to start dyeing because I thought that I needed lots of equipment and yarn and space, but now I just dye one or two skeins once in a while, very low key experience.

I am making this first blog post easy for me. I am just updating the process I am in at the moment. 

Shawls - my bliss, my sanctuary, where I keep returning to over and over again. 

How many shawls one needs - where do you put all your shawls - don’t you have many shawls already, too many shawls already? Those questions I keep getting once in a while - and my answers…

 I don’t know, but I cannot stop knitting them. It is not even a question I contemplate on, I have to knit them.

In my closet, on my couch, on my bed, on my chairs, and some I give away, but I cannot stop knitting them.

I do have many shawls, but one of my daughters has even more. It seems that my shawls crawl her way on their own. I cannot stop knitting shawls. 

One can never have too many shawls. And I cannot stop knitting shawls.

I have knit 8 big shawls this year and they must be all Westknits shawls but at the moment I am knitting, what I call a fairy-dust shawl in my mind, a shawl design by Inese Sang (@isangknits on Instagram). The shawl is called “Stars in your hands” and can be found on Ravelry.

While I was going through my stash of yarns earlier in June trying to find something to overdye for the dye class, I came across this from 1980’s ( - I know, ancient!)  I remember where I bought the yarn and that I knitted a cardigan from it, and had these two odd balls left. I don’t have a clue which yarn or fiber it is but it was precious then and that is the reason why I have saved it since. It has these little white puffs (little hard to see in the picture) and it reminded me of Inese Sang’s beautiful patterns that have tiny nupps and soft colors and I had to go and buy a pattern then and there. I hope I can find a spot to include this yarn in the shawl.

I am using two yarns that I dyed myself . This alpaca blend and this fingering weight, both yarns bought through the dye class, and I am not quite sure what they are exactly, but both feel nice and dyed beautifully. The alpaca blend base was white and I got what I wanted in the first try, but this blue speckled I dyed twice. First bath gave me this light blue and the next one I tried to sprinkle some speckles into it, and I do love the outcome. My final results in my dyeing experiments are either happy accidents …  or not. 

I try to have an open mind, to play with colors, I don’t make plans (so I don’t be disappointed too much) and just enjoy the process. I love the possibility to give a second chance to a yarn that I once bought and then thought, what was I thinking… I have lots of yarn but I love most of it. There are some fibers that I am not drawn to at the moment, but I try to think that I just have not yet found a perfect project for them. My stash used to weigh me down but no more, now it is just full of possibilities, a play ground really. And since I am constantly using it and tossing it around, I am happy with it.

I am using for the shawl also this laceweight merino with thin kid silk mohairs from various dyers.  This lace weight merino is an old one (one that I thought for a long time that I did not care for the color at all) and am thinking of overdyeing the rest when this shawl is done. I am about half-way done of the shawl, but as always, the further you get, the longer the rows.

Ok, I think this is all. Thank you for reading, thank you for your comments during these past times and your questions of how I am. I am not having the comments open, as there seems to be spam always, but if you want to contact me, you can do so via Ravelry (lenealve) or you can reach me through Instagram @lmkalve.

As always,

Wool with you,

Lene

PS. My computer said farewell long time ago and since I am writing on the tablet, I am having some difficulties navigating the pages and finding my way around the blog, this feels little uncomfortable at the moment, but hopefully will get easier.