Handspun Watercolour Shawl

Pattern: Whippoorwill by Carina Spencer.

Yarn: My own handspun made from TFA Superwash merino roving in "Coloured Denim", Cosmic Blue Label in Moonmist and Red Label Cashmere/Silk Singles in Dusk. 

Ravelry project page here

Still waiting for baby! We took these FO shots last Sunday, the first day that I was officially overdue. With Rowan I went into labour 4 days before my due date, I should have known better than to compare one pregnancy to another, but I was completely thrown off when my due date came and went and still the baby hadn't decided to join us on the outside. Rowan normally runs into our room in the morning and screams "Good morning mommy!" right in my face, followed by the sweetest good morning kiss right on the lips. It's possibly the best part of my day, even though recently its been happening before 6am... On Sunday morning Rowan ran into our room and rather than my "Good morning" he yelled: "Baby come out!" then I got my kiss and we went on with our day. 

I need to stay busy to keep my patience up. This baby is worth waiting for and s(he) will come when they're ready (or when my doctor say's they're ready!) So we tried to fill the morning with an FO shoot. I thought that maybe I could get some cute shots of me, super pregnant yet elegant in my new shawl, but my puffy face and Rowan conspired against me. No cute shots of me, but lots of Rowan wearing his new favourite "blanket". 

I bet that anyone with kids can relate to this scenario even if you've never tried to do a photo shoot with your toddler, you've probably been in a millions other situations that played out similarly. This is how our photo shoot went: He saw me holding up the shawl and waving it around. He wanted it. I foolishly wrapped him in it. He dropped it and stood on it. I panicked and tried to get it off of him. He screamed. I wiped his tears. He grimaced. I gave in and let him keep it. He won. He was happy. 

I love how this shawl came out. Handspun is just so lovely to knit with and to admire once the knitting is complete. There is just something undeniably special about yarn handspun from hand dyed roving. It's completely unique and irreproducible. The only thing that I don't love about how my shawl came out is how tight my cast off edge is. I couldn't get those lovely ripples that everyone else seems to get. I went up 2 needle sizes and cast off "loosely" as the pattern suggests, but I guess not loosely enough. It doesn't ruin it for me, but a wavier edge would have been prettier. 

We don't dye roving often. It's quite time consuming and labour intensive, but it is very rewarding so I'm going to try and make more time for it. Hopefully we'll have some available to share soon!

In the meantime, I'd love to know, who are your favourite roving hand dyers? I'm in the mood to go roving shopping!