So I finished the Fleur Shawl on October 9th, after two months in the making. This knit was quite an adventure all by itself.
At the beginning, Carolin started it all, sending me some Nutiden from her stash, one of my yarn kryptonite. What a good idea, it initiated a nice and easy relationship. I sent her some mohair from my dear Pyrénées, I do appreciate when internet allows to meet such interesting people and leads to fruitful exchanges, literally.
So she sent me some of this exceptional yarn, I already talked about it : https://knitnow491147447.wordpress.com/2023/09/11/wooly-stories-the-yarn-gifted-to-me-nutiden-by-honer-och-eir/. I am not going to rephrase myself and describe again my thoughts about the yarn itself.
What I can add here is my experience knitting with it. And it was so unique, I had never ever knit anything similar.
The pattern
I choose the Fleur shawl by Espace Tricot as part of the #FleurALong Knitalong that Carmen and Jackie have started on their YouTube channel and also host on Instagram. An elongated shawl based on a triangle shape, but with increase rates higher at either sides than in the center, so it has long wingspans and a rather deep center.
The colour choices
I could choose between this greyed deeper pink or a subtle and light one. I went with the deep one and white contrasting rows and bubbles. Big cheeky bubbles as one of the lovely yous said. I’m not much into bubbles, so why not big and obvious ones ? I kinda questioned my bolder selection at first, then stayed with it and now I love it. It brightens my day.
The knitting experience
And that was one ! Nutiden single stranded with bobbles is quite an adventure.. I had to learn how to knit with it, did not break much yarn, a couple times only, and it was as easy to spit splice as it is said everywhere else. I had to change my entire knitting habits. Well worth it, and I was quite happy to go back to using “regular” spun yarn in between Nutiden sessions.
I discovered that I like to tension my yarn on my right finger (I knit English style, this is how I was taught by my grandmother when I was around 5 or 6, quite a long long time ago), adjusting the overall tension between the lower part of my hand and the stitches on my right needle. I am not a tight knitter, I am not a loose knitter. I should say I am rather average.
I had to omit wrapping the yarn around my pinkie all together and to remember not pressing it with my hand against the fabric on my right needle. This had me knitting at a much looser gauge than usual. It does not have much importance for a shawl, I will have to carefully swatch and calculate for a sweater or a vest.
My next project with Nutiden will be double stranded to see how it compares to single stranded. In addition, I have some Manchelopis by WoolDreamers in the unspun department (also sent by one of the lovely yous) that I want to try. A cooler grey and a white. Manchelopis comes double stranded, and seems a tad less soft than the Nutiden. We’ll see, I already have an idea for it.
YouTube Companion Video : https://youtu.be/gYtJ73pb-hY
Knit Now 