Treasured Gift
Elizabeth was overwhelmed when she received two beautiful shawls from Daniela Rýznarová from Dalin Praha, on Elizabeth’s stepping back from the daily operations of the business.
We have had the great pleasure and privilege to work with Daniela’s parents, and Daniela as our distributor in the Czech Republic. For over 24 years they, Dalin Praha, have promoted and sold the Ashford brand and acquired great technical skill as well.
Daniela writes, “I am sorry there will be no more Wheel magazines… I understand the desire to spend time with beautiful grandchildren and I hope you’re going to have an amazing time in this next chapter of your life… I hope they (the shawls) both will warm your heart and bring you joy.”
Thank you! Elizabeth will treasure these beautiful shawls.
The “Nightshift Shawl” is knitted in handspun Ashford Corriedale sliver. The pattern by Andrea Mowry is a popular pattern using commercial yarn, but Daniela has made it with hand spun yarn that featured in issue 31 of The Wheel magazine.
To buy the pattern for Andrea Mowry’s beautiful Nightshift Shawl design go to www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/nightshift
The Lace Shawl is 100% silk that is hand dyed, and glass beads. The pattern is Lilith, by Bev Johnson, and is also available on Ravelry: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/lilith-7
Intentional Yarn Design
By Daniela Rýznarová , Prague, Czech Republic as featured in Issue 31 of The Wheel magazine.
A spinner takes a popular commercial pattern using commercial yarn and makes it her own with hand spun yarn.
Andrea Mowry’s Nightshift shawl is a beautiful design. She recommends using a worsted weight commercial yarn made from variegated dyed sliver that mimics hand spun yarn. It is only one more little step to make this shawl using your own real hand spun yarn!
The pattern is extremely addictive to knit – a perfect combination of mindless and focussed knitting – that produces an amazingly colourful and textural staple for your wardrobe. It’s also super easy to adjust to your needs. You can spin whatever type of yarn you like and make more or fewer repeats of the pattern choosing the final size of your shawl, but I wanted to make my shawl as close to the original as possible.
Nightshift stands out with both its colourfulness and its texture. I chose Ashford Corriedale sliver as it gives a more rustic, big, thick and cosy feel when spun. For a nice round yarn and a good colour blend I decided on the traditional 3 ply yarn.
It is easy to lose some colour contrast in the texture, but as I love bold colours, it was easier for me. I chose three or four colours of the Corriedale sliver for each of the six colourways. Randomness of colours in each yarn was welcome, so I used different amounts of each sliver colour for each strand, divided each sliver into fifteen thin (but not the same) strips and spun the colours in the same order over and over for each single.
I based my shawl on three main strong colours that had enough contrast. For shawl 1, I used turquoise, purple and yellow. For shawl 2 I used orange, blue and yellow. Then I picked colours that complemented and contrasted based on saturation and lightness. So, for example, the subtle blue-green section has a lovely pop of bright, light green in the darker area.
I spun the fibre quite finely as I didn’t want the shawl too heavy. I spun six skeins each of 60gm (2ozs).
In the 3 ply yarns there are three possible colour combinations:
- Having three singles the same colour
- Having two singles of one colour and the third of another colour
- Having each of the three singles a different colour
After all the yarn was spun and plied, I create a plan on paper of the colour sequence. A little tip to help with your decisions – the most visible part of the shawl is its very end. So, this is where I started with my plan and moved on from there. I didn’t worry which of the two colours were in the foreground and which were in the background. I only played with the colour combinations.
This added to the biggest addiction I ever had knitting! It was so much fun knitting each stitch to see which colours met with the pattern. I knitted the shawl on needles two sizes smaller than usual – one size for the slightly thinner yarn and one for my loose knitting.
Here are the colours of the Ashford Corriedale I used in my two shawls. What colours will you choose for your Nightshift shawl?
Nightshift 1
A – Spearmint, Turquoise, Fluro Blue,
B – Strawberry Shortcake, Marshmallow,
Cupcake,
C – Amethyst, Orchid, Lavender,
D – Cheesecake, Yellow, Lemon,
E – Green Tea, Green, Fluro Green,
F – Indigo, Lagoon, Grey
Nightshift 2 (Elizabeth’s shawl)
A – Lemon, Tangerine, Orange, Chilli
Pepper,
B – Cherry Red, Cookie, Toffee,
C – Indigo, Turquoise, Fluro Blue,
D – Lemon, Butterscotch, Cheesecake,
E – Chocolate, Toffee, Butterscotch,
F – Beansprout, Olive, Cookie, Toffee.
With my parents being the distributor for Ashford products in Czech Republic, I started spinning, weaving and knitting as a child and I couldn’t imagine my life without it today. It’s not only my job, but my lifestyle. While teaching spinning and weaving to share this passion among other people, I see myself as a student all the time. There’s time and space for all the experiences and discoveries yet!
