The Byatt Shawl. . .

Here finally is my Byatt shawl and I love it!

I really agonized over colour choices for this one.  I knew I wanted to add a third colour so I wouldn't run out of yarn but trying to harmonize the three in terms of tone proved a bit tricky.  I used three skeins from my stash - Rowan Fine Art for the first section, Titus in the lovely teal Eccup colourway for the lace and contrast colour, and then the brown is Polana Ranch Alpaca which was a gift from my friend Roz and is sooooo soft and squishy.

I also added beads to the lace section as I love the extra weight they give to a shawl. Again, I switched colours going from using copper beads which proved to be a bit too shiny to these matted silver ones.

I probably spent four times as long as I needed to, knitting this project but am so happy to get there in the end.   This is the perfect shawl for throwing around my shoulders at night while reading in bed.  I absolutely loved reading The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt, which inspired this shawl design and it is so rewarding to combine my love of books and knitting into one project.  In a former life, I used to work for Byatt's Canadian publisher and I did get to meet her twice which was the greatest thrill. She was also very gracious with her time and granted me a fascinating interview about researching and writing The Children's Book.  It's still knocking about the internet and if you are interested you can read it here.  Needless to say, I highly recommend the novel; I think I like it even more than Possession.