Every now and then, a project just jumps out at me. I see it
and I know immediately that I need to make it. That was how the Siobhan shawl
came about.
Last October, my mom and I took a trip to San Antonio,
Texas. We did all the normal tourist things, saw the Alamo, visited the Spanish
missions, went up the Tower of the Americas, ate barbeque and Tex-Mex, drove up
to Stonewall, Texas to visit the LBJ Ranch and Texas Whitehouse, and took a
ghost tour.* In addition to those things, we also shopped for yarn. I like to
try to find a local yarn store whenever I travel; yarn makes a great souvenir.
My mom is also a knitter, so she was up for doing some yarn shopping. We
happened to be visiting during the 2016 Hill Country Yarn Crawl and made it to
5 of the shops on the crawl.
One of those shops was a place called Inskein Yarns, a cute
little shop in Northwest San Antonio. If you are a fiber artist and in the
area, stop by. The staff is amazingly friendly and helpful and they have a
great selection of yarns.
While browsing, I came across a shawl up by the check out.
Something about the shawl caught my eye, the colors, the texture, the design; I’m
not sure what it was, but I knew I had to make that shawl in that yarn. I asked
about it, the design was created by the shop owner and the yarn was from a
local indie dyer. That was all I needed to know, I bought the yarn and the
pattern on the spot.
Design wise, Siobhan is a simple shawl, with a couple of
interested elements. The body of the shawl has a stitch pattern that creates a
great texture that works well for hand-dyed yarns. The bottom of the shawl has
these great little loops, which add so much to the overall look. Overall, the
knitting wasn’t difficult and it was fun to knit.
 |
| Detail of the loops on the bottom of the shawl and the texture of the shawl body. |
The yarn, as I mentioned before, is from an indie dyer in
San Antonio, Irish Girl Crafts. The yarn base is called Tullamore and is a
blend of superwash corriedale wool (75%) and nylon (25%). The color way, Amber’s
Fire in the Sky, is a combination of white, purple, yellow, and orange (there may
be another color or two in there) and is gorgeous! The colorway makes me think
of Disney villains. It is possibly the combination of purples and blacks, or
maybe the fact that I started knitting this project on my way to Disney World. Either
way, it is a great color combination, I may have to watch the dyer’s Etsy store
to see if she ever lists more for sale.
*On a completely unrelated note, I have participated in
three ghost tours now, Key West, New Orleans, and San Antonio. I highly
recommend checking one out if you are visiting a city that has one (there are
lots). Even if you aren’t big on the whole looking for ghosts thing, it is a
great way to see some forgotten corners of your destination and hear some local
legends. I don’t know that my mom is big into hunting ghosts, and she still
seemed to have a great time on the San Antonio one.
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