KNIT: Seaside Foundry in White Gum Wool

Oh how I have enjoyed knitting as part of a community. I've taken part in 2 KALS, or knit-alongs over on Ravelry since last I wrote. Both were shawls, and both were by Shannon Sanchez Designs.

Foundry is a steampunk inspired design, with rusting rivets, that I simply had to take to the beach.

I had the most fabulous time knitting Foundry, yes, at the beach, being inspired by the constant, reassuring crash of water, the golden sand and the continually changing colours of the waves.
I've used two shades of White Gum Wool, from two talented indie dyers.

Rebecca of Augustbird dyed the Orange Earl as part of her TeaTime club in November 2015 and it  cleverly has subtle orange shades amongst it's green background.
Jenna of Nunnaba released Herbs as part of her 2015 Spiced collection and the blend of blue-green is simply divine.

White Gum Wool, the base that both dyed is simply the snuggliest, squishiest, most divine soft wool I've ever caressed. It does help that it comes from happy Tasmanian sheep, raised by Nan and processed sustainably in NZ. I first heard of WGW when SewJillian posted her shade card on Instagram. I simply had to get one of my own, read all of Nan's blog posts, and when it arrived, promptly knitted up all of the swatch card and went searching for semi-solid colours, which led me to Augustbird and Nunnaba ;)

Knitting Foundry was a series of 4 clues over 4 weeks, and they were big! First was to cast on over 300 stitches, definitely a record for me, by about 200.... Jenny taught me the long-tail cast on & I used both ends of my ball of Nunnaba Herbs, very uneventful and took a bit over an hour, phew!

My first KAL? It was for the mystery ArtDeco inspired garter stitch short-row shawl Lucky in September 2015. I knew what Foundry would look like when finished, for Lucky, it was a mystery until I'd finished clue 4. I learnt a lot knitting Lucky, especially different types of short rows (German suits me) and Judy's magic cast on (it's magical, I love it!).

Stretching Lucky on the line

I also learnt that I like BIG shawls and scarves, so that's why I chose to make the fingering/4ply Foundry in DK/8ply.

2.10m along the bottom edge, oh yeah!

My Ravelry Notes for Foundry:

I like the description of Foundry as a sampler, I learnt bobbles, i-cord cast-off edge, beading, lace, a long-tail cast-on of over 300 stitches and making a fingering shawl in DK ;) It was lots of fun.

Total size 82" across the top edge and 12"wide at the centre, perfect and as I hoped.

Total wool used 414m
Herbs (Nunnaba blue-green) - 86g (200m) (14g left)
Orange Earl (Augustbird Green) - 91g (214m) (9g left)

28/1/16: clue 3 done. Have 26g each of herbs and orange earl left. Used herbs for all of clues 1&2, orange earl for clue 3. I await clue 4…

27/1/16: mid way through the short rows of clue 3. Put on a double cable and I love the length!
My lace is an organic interpretation, rather than the patterns gridded metal, I can only improve with each lace project. And my first beads were slow but not too fiddly… (used a piece of metal wire prethreaded in batches and bent through each bead as I placed them)

12/1/16: finished clue 1.
Around 90” bottom edge length in Dk, perfect. 305 stitches. My first bobbles! Love it & am really happy I’ve opted for Dk. I didn’t do the beaded picot cast on, just a long-tail as I may find myself playing yarn chicken with the 2 green skeins. (used 50g) 

And a huge Thank You to Jenny who hung out at the beach with me and took these shots on an awesome photo shoot day!