Jasmine - a Wisp of a Shawl......

The above shawl was knitted in the Japanese yarn, Habu Silk & Mohair, shade 'Rosemary' . This yarn is an absolute joy to knit with, so delicate but strong, fluffy but with a silky sheen, and whatever pattern you use it with, it always looks great.



I knitted a simple lace edging and then picked up the top stitches to knit the plain main part in stocking stitch, finishing with a row of eyelets at the top and using short row shaping to create the semi-circular shape. I picked up a few stitches at either end to make the ties, and crocheted a picot edging round the whole thing.

To finish it off, I knitted the tiniest of flowers using Rowan Kidsilk Haze in the shade 'Icecream', and sewed them randomly across the shawl, with little vintage pearl beads in the centre of each one.

This will be for sale on Etsy shortly, or you can e-mail me direct.

Three Black Dogs.......

I'm having trouble this week......maybe it's the weather, maybe it's just me, but I cannot seem to get myself motivated. I feel in desperate need of some warmth and sunshine in order to kick-start my creative 'mojo'!



This is one project on the go - a brown horse made from faux suede using the zebra pattern kindly sent to me by Cat at Raggy Rat. It's hard.....it's really complicated.......took me over an hour to cut out the pieces...oh dear! However, going to attempt to sew it together today, and let's hope it doesn't end up looking like it should be sent down the knacker's yard! (In olden days, aged or decrepit horses were sold for a pittance to the knackers who would then bump them off to be made into dog food & glue.......hence the phrase 'knackered'.)

If you are part of the Sacker clan, you may want to avert your eyes here, because it may spoil the surprise.....


I have been given a lovely commission to do of two Munsterlander dogs, beautiful creatures. But they are predominantly black.....I don't know if any other artists out there have trouble with black animals, but I do. I don't know why, it just makes me feel I am not up to the job for some reason and if it wasn't for a deadline, I'd be doing some serious procrastination right now! I'm OK once I get going, I'm OK when I walk past and think 'that looks all right actually', but trying to get the motivation to get up and start, that's another matter. All that black is so scary!!

And the third black dog? That would be my saluki who is not enjoying the wet weather and slinks around looking at me balefully as though I am personally responsible for the flooded fields, seas of mud and the indignity of having to wear a bright red coat for his twice daily walks. I tell him it's not much fun for me either, hiking in the driving rain, my welly has sprung a leak and I then have to clear up all the muddy splashes up the walls and the dirty paw-prints on my carpets...but he doesn't care, it's still my fault!

P.S. Finished the commissioned shawl for a lady in the USA - turned out rather well, even though I say so myself!

It's knitted in Rowan Kidsilk Haze, 'Pearl' and is to be worn at her wedding. It will be like wearing a piece of gossamer....

Lighter than Air........

This is the shawl that started my current love affair with Rowan Kidsilk Spray and subsequently Kidsilk Night yarns. I've used this pattern before - last time was using the pineapple fibre ramie - and it always knits up beautifully with not as much effort as you would think. It's more time consuming than anything else, but has the advantage of decreasing gradually as you go which fools you into thinking you are knitting faster!
The yarn is a soft pink with hints of lavender and peach, and really is as light as air. Combined with the fluffiness of the mohair, it makes for a delicate yet warm wrap.
It is wide enough to be wrapped around your shoulders and tied in a knot - I have one in navy that can even be worn over jeans and looks great. This will be going on to Etsy very shortly.

I have two other kidsilk project on the go - a curly lacy crochet scarf in Kidsilk Night, which has a thin sparkly silver thread running through it, in the shade 'Storm' which is a purply blue exactly the colour of storm clouds. The scarf is trimmed with clear crystal beads which to my mind represent the rain drops. Looking very pretty - had to put it on hold while I searched the globe for another ball of this colour which arrived this morning.

The other project is a lacy knit scarf in a deep blue Kidsilk Night, this time threaded with blue-ish AB seed beads - still very much in the early stages but looking lovely already.

I just love to knit.......