Sunday 25 January 2015

My First Beaded Shawl!

As I said a little while ago I've finished and blocked my Rivoli Shawl. My husband just got round to taking photos as we're having quite a clear sky day here. It's lost some of it's shape as it was blocked a few weeks ago but it's still beautiful and I couldn't be any happier with it. It will definitely need blocking before I go away again but I don't mind that too much.


You may have noticed that it's not as deep as the pattern example and the main reason for that is that I didn't swatch! I never swatch for shawls as I'm happy to rip out if the fabric isn't what I want and am generally not bothered if it comes out a little smaller or bigger than the pattern example, as long as it's still wearable. I only used 496 metres of yarn and the pattern recommends having 700 metres available to use.  


If I were to knit this pattern again I would use a different blend. The fiber is Lotus Yarns Forest Dew, which is a blend of 36% angora, 30% merino, 26% tencel and 8% cashmere. While I love the finished shawl it does give it a different look to the merino/silk blend that the designer used. It's more soft, fluffy and not as polished looking. When I do get to wear this in December I am sure that I will greatly appreciate the fluffiness of it! 


The beads are great as they weigh the shawl down a bit and I'm hoping they will help to hold it in place when I do wear it.  Using the Fleegle Beader made the beading a huge amount easier than using floss to transfer the beads and I'm extremely happy I had it. In the future I'm sure I will make some more beaded projects although, I have no plans to at the moment. 

What have you finished recently that you can't wait to wear!? 

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6 comments:

  1. It looks lovely. I love the contrast between the warm fuzz of the yarn and the gleam of the beads.

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    1. Thank you! The contrast is lovely but the beads so difficult to capture to really show them off!

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  2. It looks beautiful! And there are actually people that swatch for a shawl? I'm much too lazy for that. I've never work with beaded knitting, maybe I should give it a try this year.

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    1. I'm sure there must be people who swatch for shawls...somewhere! I haven't met any of them having said that! It's a really fun skill to learn and a lot easier than it may seem. For me it was the pattern that spurred me on rather than the desire to knit with beads but I really enjoyed it.

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  3. Absolutely beautiful!! I have never mixed beans and yarn. Which is rather odd, considering I did beadwork for years before I learned how to knit. This is lovely!!

    She Knits in Pearls

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    1. Thank you! That is a little odd! It's great fun and looks so pretty. You should give it a try! :-)

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