Oscillating Almond

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It is no secret that I love the fresh approach of Xandy Peters‘ knitting patterns. So when a dear friend asked me to knit her something between a scarf and a shawl, I initially thought of Oscillating Almond. This design uses a simple form of stacked stitches to create an almond shaped shawl and can be used to practise the technique. It is intended to be knit in at least one main colour plus one contrasting colour, but will also look good in a lot more colours. I have used two balls of the discontinued Colinette Jitterbug in Lichen as main colour and one ball of some sparkling high twist yarn of unknown origin as well as some Kathienchen High Twist in Peony as contrasting colours.

The yarns

My version is a lot larger than the pattern version as I wanted to use up my main colour. This approach resulted in a shawl with five full pattern repeats plus eight rows more. It weighs about 380g and has almost blanket size.

It’s HUGE!

Well aware of the large size, I did a beaded picot bind-off over 940 stitches which took me an entire Sunday afternoon and evening, but was totally worth the effort. I really like the slight reflections of the beads at the edge.

Beaded picot bind-off

Oscillating Almond was a pleasure to knit. The pattern is well-written and easy to follow and my yarn choice was perfect. Maybe I’ll knit another version of it one day in black with scrappy colour pops.

Taboo

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I hate blocking. I postpone it whenever I can as I lack an appropriate space for it. This time, I blocked my Taboo shawl very early in the morning on my bed. Of course, my plan did not succeed, it was still wet in the evening so I had to sleep in my guest bed. However, the result was worth all effort.

The pattern is Taboo by booknits, knit with Jaipur Silk Fino by BC Garn. The pattern is very well written, but you have to count a lot. Placing the beads was time-consuming due to their number, but they add just the right amount of glamour. I have chosen pale lilac, silver lined beads to give my monochrome yarn choice a little twist. The yarn itself is a pleasure to work with, although I am not happy with the way silk usually is produced from an ethical point of view. At least, BC Garn is GOTS certified, so they do care about the sourced of their products in general.