Sometimes the perfect yarn, the perfect pattern, the perfect mood and the perfect timing coincide, and you feel that the gods of knitting are looking favourably upon you.

So it was that on Tuesday this week I cast on for the Simmer Dim shawl pattern, (which was a birthday gift from Brenda) in handspun yarn (which was a birthday gift from Liz). There are just not enough hyperbolic words of praise in the OED to do justice to the finespun wonderment that is Liz’s perfect, even, beautifully colour-spaced 4-ply yarn. It’s just delicious. And there are also no words to describe the joy I felt at encountering Gudrun Johnston’s clear pattern-writing style, which meant I did not screw up my knitting once even though there is some lace involved in this otherwise mindless-but-still-interesting knit with all its garter stitch joy. SCORE!

Liz’s handspun is made from fibres dyed by Meghan, AKA The Thylacine. I gather these fibres are from British Bluefaced Leicester sheep, and that they were originally grey or oatmeal and not pure white, as there is a beautiful warm hue which permeates all the colours with sheepy warmth. Let us praise the fibres and Liz’s handspun in photos, as we have already established that words are inadequate.

I especially love how Liz has gotten these beautiful, long colour repeats into her yarn.

You must now please forgive me for roping the cat into the photographs of the shawl; Mark is away today and Joey is my only company. As you can see, this is not working out well for the poor cat. However, on a positive note, the knitted shawl is soft enough that it did not disturb his heavenly kitty slumberz.

Specs:

Pattern design: Simmer Dim from The Shetland Trader, AKA Gudrun Johnston
Yarn: incredible finest handspun from Liz, hewn from the wondrous overdyed oatmeal fibres of The Thylacine AKA Megan
Needles: 4mm and 6mm knitpicks interchangeables
Model: Joey the cutest cat in the universe, showing us the many ways one can sleep with paws crossed cutely over face
Ravelled: here

All of this to say, that my knitting mojo has been returned to me through the power of coincidental BIRTHDAY GIFTZ! Thank You!