Japanese Inspirations. . .

My latest projects seem to be inspired by the Japanese. I'm currently knitting the Japanese Feather and Fan Shawl, a free pattern on Ravelry designed by IzzyKnits.  

I'm using some Madeleine Tosh Prairie  (I think the colour is Ink, but I've lost the band) that is in my stash.  It's a lovely midnight blue and I chose it because it reminds me of the background colour to a lot of Japanese sashiko stitching projects, like this cushion cover I picked up at the Quilt Museum in York.  I'm very eager to get stitching on this (there's a great tutorial on how to do it at the wonderful Purl Bee blog here)

My other current knitting project is some more linen stitch, experimenting with three balls of Japanese Noro Silk Garden.  Originally, I was using one skein at a time but the stripes got a bit too intense colourwise.  Now I'm using three separate skeins and I like how the colours are merging into one another. It's almost like an English garden in full bloom.

Not sure if this will become a scarf, a long cowl, a cushion cover, a table runner, or I might even felt it and see what happens. I'm just going to keep knitting until all the balls run out.