Shawl knitting in da Pinas

I have a feeling I already mentioned this in my knitting blog elsewhere.... but anyway, it's been a major challenge for me to look for shawl patterns online that do not involve lace knitting, since i've decided that lace is not my major passion as far as knitting is concerned.

Much of the shawl patterns online are designed either for "heirloom" show-off lace pieces, to be worn on formal occasions such as weddings, or for warming the body like a huge blanket. I suspect that no knitter living in a tropical climate, like me, has ever posted a non-lace shawl pattern online. Just a suspicion.

So I've had to make my own patterns in which I come up with triangular shawls that can be used on cool summer nights, or when one has to go out into a hot sunny day and beat the heat inside an airconditioned refuge. When i finally finish one such shawl I'll write up the pattern and post it online, although I doubt if there are many takers for such patterns :-)

For now, I'm being mindful of Saturn Retro making me seek closure in creative projects I've long wanted to do (technical details: natal Saturn in 5th House of Creativity, retro in 11th House of Hopes and Wishes). This means setting aside my plans for knitting tropical shawls for Bora, except... for me! I had long wanted to knit myself a shawl, though I do have one already using Laines du Nord's Zahir--in fact, to use up my remaining yarn, i'm making another one, rectangular this time, in seed stitch.

But I have no shawl yet in tencel yarn, so that's what I'm doing. Tencel or lyocell is like rayon, made from tree cellulose, and is absorbent like cotton but soft as silk. I'm planning to knit myself at least 2 triangular shawls in tencel, one in black and the other in red.

Zahir Scarf for Beng

Yarn: Laines du Nord Zahir ribbon yarn, called FIESTA by elann.com but a.k.a. 4012 Turquoise Gold, a mix of 51% cotton, 4% polyamid and 45% silk. Each ball is 119 yards.

For my first entry to my knitting blog, let me report my first project with my elann stash: a drop-stitch scarf in ribbon yarn for my friend Beng, a fantastic jazz singer who belts out Ella Fitzgerald in the glitzy Millenium Bar in Singapore.

Fresh in Manila for a much-deserved vacation, she dropped by my small and messy apartment. We exchanged gifts: I haven't opened hers yet, since her daughter had insisted on wrapping the stuff in holiday gift wrapper which automatically meant I cannot open it until Dec. 25 (yeah, I'm an OC about such stuff...) and I handed her the wool-rayon drop-stitch scarf I had dreamt up for her in blue and green yarn. I don't know how she'll ever get to use it in Singapore, which is even nearer the equator than the Philippines, but she said she does work in a cold, airconditioned place to accommodate the mostly Western crowd.

Then I told her, like some 7-year-old schoolgirl, that I was expecting more yarn coming in from the U.S. and I proudly even showed her, from my PC, the yarn pics I took from the elann website, so I'll know what to expect. She fell in love immediately with the Laines du Nord Zahir ribbon yarn, in Fiesta. She could already see herself wearing it at work, as an accent piece. So I told her I'll make her another scarf soon as I get hold of the yarn.

So here I am now, with Beng about to leave in five days, and I doubt if I'll finish the yarn even if I'm using size 13 needles and it's a simple garter drop-stitch pattern like what I had made for her first scarf. I didn't know ribbon yarn was pure hell to knit until I read online other knitters' experiences. Yet I loved how the fabric was knitting up, so I'm sticking to it, a few rows a day. I'll have to tell Beng she'll get her scarf next time she's in town, about mid-year next year. I can't rush this. A lovely scarf like this takes time to dream up well.

Anyway, one of the ribbon yarn patterns that inspired me came from
http://www.keyboardbiologist.net/Patterns/DropStitchScarf.htm and here's a detail pic: