Knitting & crochet

Fantoosh Shawl

Gemma Evans

14 Oct 2015 — 3 min read

Fantoosh shawl

I normally have a bit of a break from knitting over the Summer but I fell in love with a shawl pattern called Fantoosh - and to justify knitting in warm weather I said to myself "If I start now it'll be ready for the Autumn". I was right. A couple of weeks ago I cast off the last few stitches, its been blocked and Scott and I photographed it on the way to a country pub for lunch at the weekend.

Sage green wool — 70% baby alpaca, 20% silk, 10% cashmere

The pattern suggested Old Maiden Aunt yarn and I stuck with this as it's not something I've knitted with before; it's always good to try something new. This yarn is hand painted in Scotland, made from UK bred wool and is so so soft. My love of all things green made Kelpie the perfect choice.

"A kelpie is one of the Scottish sidhe (fairy folk); this colourway has been handpainted in layered shades of sea-green & brown."

I nabbed a bit of a bargain too. They had a minor studio fire and as a result some of the yarn smelt of smoke. These skeins were reduced from £17 to £12.75 - a treat to myself for starting my new job! A sachet of Soak wash included to help wash the smell of the smoke out.

Scott nicknamed this project 'the needle breaker'. I broke two circular needles making it! The first was an aluminium needle and the glue dried up so the wire came out. The wood snapped on one of the second needles. Third time lucky.

I'm so pleased with this shawl, I can't believe I've made it! As I've said in previous posts I'm not a very confident knitter but I'll always give something a go. I'm okay once I've settled in to a project but I always have a thought in my mind at the beginning that I might not be able to do it, I don't know why. Perhaps it's because I picked up crochet first and knitting afterwards. Progress on this shawl has been slow because I've been very tired lately and its mostly been knitted on public transport during my commute to and from work. Commuting turned into 'me time' which was nice.

^ No matter what I do with my hair it always look like I've just rolled out of bed! Le sigh.

Closeup of Fantoosh pattern — Pattern closeup

I soaked my Fantoosh in the wool wash provided to remove the burnt smell. It did the trick. Once dry the wool smelt fine and had plumped back up nicely.