Peter Rabbit and the TARDIS

I recently finished my Hilltop Shawl by Helen Stewart.  I knitted this with the pattern and yarn that Helen generously gifted to those of us that attended the Curious Handmade Country House Retreat that I posted about here.  I very much liked the patterned rows in this shawl and decided to extend them; the only issue was that I lost at the game of yarn-chicken!

I frogged a couple of rows and managed to complete the shawl with just over 2m to spare!

I gently blocked the shawl as I didn't want to lose any of the lovely squishiness of the yarn, which is The Fibre Company's Cumbria Fingering in the colour way Eden Valley.

I increased the pattern sections of the design by adding an extra 2 rows of the eyelets each time.  This design reminds me of the bars of the gate to Mr McGregor's garden, under which Peter Rabbit squeezed.

I thought I should include a tray photo for my retreat housemates! ;)

Yesterday, as the weather had turned sunny again I decided to wear my shawl for a walk in the woods, which gave me the idea to photograph it amongst the bluebells and wood anemones.

These photos show the yarn colour in the best light and highlight just how big my shawl turned out.

I took some photos of the bluebells and tried to Periscope how beautiful it is in the woods at this time of year, but I'm not very confident talking to the camera, so I will write another post about that and include a short clip of the woodland another time.

I have another shawl on my needles at the moment and this one I am calling the TARDIS.  This is a very different design to my usual aesthetic.  In May we are going to Comic Con in London as a family and having previously seen this shawl pattern, I felt that it was the right accessory for the event.  I searched the net for 2 skeins of police box blue and found this lovely yarn by one of my favourite indie dyers, fivemoons.

I immediately prepared the yarn and cast on.

The lace section is called the Time Vortex and was enjoyable to knit.  I have increased the length of part to make a longer shawl with more depth at the back.

I blocked the lace to make it easier to pick up the stitches along the curved edge for the TARDIS section.

I picked up the stitches as evenly as possible, without counting them as I felt that way I would have a neater join.

I then did the maths and worked out that I had the correct amount of stitches for 19 TARDIS's and I have allowed for a few extra stitches on each side where I plan to increase them to produce more curved ends, as the original pattern had blunt ends that I don't like.
I plan to change to border too, from a ribbed section to lace.  I am considering this border and Kristina has kindly sent the chart to me.