Christmas Knitting: Butterfly Shawl

When I moved in July 2012 I really fell back in love with knitting. I decided to feed that new love and keep it alive. One of the ways I did that was by watching podcasts and hearing all the good yarn gossip.  I came across the Care of Magic Creatures pattern set and knew I wanted to make it. It works like a bracelet merit badge collection. For the frog merit badge, you have to learn a new skill and I decided I wanted to learn to spin.

I bought a kit on etsy and started immediately. On a trip to visit friends. I bought a massive 4oz bag of wool. I'm not much for rainbows so I separated out all the reds and yellows and decided to spin them separately.

Spinning is very relaxing and surprisingly easy.

When I saw the Nymphalidea Shawl I knew I wanted to knit it as a Christmas gift. The red and yellow yarn I had been spinning would be perfect. I started working on it but never felt like I would finish making the yarn in time.

Then a Christmas miracle occurred. My parents and boyfriend went in together and bought me Ashland Kiwi 2 Spinning Wheel. I was in complete shock and spent most of the day putting it together.

As soon as I did a little light went off in my head and I realized I could spin the rest of the yarn for my grandma's shawl. That is exactly what I did for at least half of Christmas day.

There it is on my spindle.

You may notice some purple. If you look at my spinning wheel picture you may notice that fiber matches my red yellow fiber + some purple. I just put a tiny bit in.

Did I mention my parents and boyfriend splurged on me. They made sure to get me a spinning wheel that came with extras. Like a niddy noddy













Then of course I wanted to see what it would look like in skein form.

I didn't have any more time to work on it until the night before I was suppose to give it to my grandmother, but I finished it, washed it, blocked it, and still had time to get it in a box and wrapped. 

I mentioned buying the brown yarn here. 

End result: She loved it.