The Shawl Society

This post comes with the warning *SPOILER ALERT* as it features the first two designs in The Shawl Society Collection by Helen Stewart of Curious Handmade.

As you may have realised I can't resist a shawl design by Helen and as soon as she mentioned this collection of designs I was in!  The first pattern was released in June and it was called the Talisman Shawl as it features rows of star stitch.  I decided to use my skein of Phoenix 4ply, in the Watersmeet colourway, by Natural Dye Studio for this and I added beads between the stars and along the border.

I love the way the tails on crescent shawls curl!

The second design in the series is called the Amulet Shawl and this time I am knitting the large size.  I'm using stash yarn again, this time a beautiful gold Selkino by the Skein Queen.  The beads are brown with silver-lining.

I really enjoy using the nostepinne that my Dad made for me.  It makes beautifully wound, centre-pull balls and although the process is slower than using a yarn-winder, I feel that it enables me to get to know the yarn and allows me time to fully appreciate the colours.

I had recently purchased these two snail beads and quickly turned them into progress keepers for this project and made a few stitch markers to match.  It is helpful to place a progress keeper on this shawl to highlight the right side as both sides are quite similar to start with.

I haven't wanted to work on any other projects since casting on this shawl and as I have had a fair amount of knitting time this past week, due to a nasty chesty cough, I have managed to complete 60% quite quickly. 

As always, yarn from the Skein Queen is a delight to work with and I'm looking forward to wearing this shawl.

It looks like the snail has his eye on that flower! :)