FO: Pix Shawl

I've been doing quite a bit of test knitting lately. Some for Tri'Coterie and others just because. I quite like the process of test knitting a new pattern - it gives me a chance to get an idea of do's and don'ts for my own pattern writing (whether it be layout, wording, how to explain things, using charts) and I think my tech editing skills are improving because of it. Hopefully it will help my own pattern writing process - turning ideas into something coherent that others can use.

I belong to a test knitting group on Ravelry and recently volunteered to test knit a shawl pattern. It's exactly the kind of thing I enjoy knitting while listening to an audiobook - a plain body that knits itself as you listen and then some lace at the bottom. In this case it was easy feather and fan so I quickly put my name down to test.

That's our new diva cat - Mandy. She lived in our house before us and didn't want to move with her owner. When we found her she was a skinny feral ball of knots and now she is very much (the fat) Queen of the house -our pillow stealing, neighbours cat food eating and inquisitive FO photographing cat that acts like we have owned her forever. We love her.

The pattern called for sportweight but I had quite a bit of Spotlights Basic Merino that they were selling a few years ago. It's very thin and I have been using it as a sub for sportweight. 4mm needles, two colour stripes. I used about 550m so it is quite big - longer than my arm span and very snuggly because the yarn is pure wool and somewhere between 4 and 8 ply in thickness. I think it might be nice around my shoulders in bed when I am reading or over my knees on a cold night. Winter is definitely making itself known here and it was nice to make something a bit warmer.

The pattern is for sale and you can find the pattern link here.