Daybreak

Once in while a knitting pattern comes along, which is, at least for me, like a good book. Once you start, you can't stop. 'Just one more row' easily turns into an hour or more of happy knitting and though you can't wait to have the finished object, you threat the moment you're done because it has been so much fun.

One of those projects is 'Daybreak' by Stephen West. It's a fairly simple semicircular shawl with stripes and can be knitted in three different sizes. I've bought the pattern when the 'pattern for Haiti' was one, meaning that a large percentage of the proceeds went directly to a charity to aid the people after that terrible earthquake one month ago (though, I have to admit, that was not the main reason - I just wanted the pattern)
I saw several people on Ravelry using Schoppel Zauberball yarn in the colors 'Schokocreme' (brown/creme) and 'gebrannte Mandeln' (red/brown/orange) and as I had one ball of the 'gebrannte Mandeln' in my stash I thought it a pretty cool idea. I also had a ball of 'Schokocreme', but had knitted it up already last year for a triangular scarf.
Now, I could try to get another ball of the 'Schokocreme' or I could try something else. So I dove into my pile of wool and came up with three skeins of Ístex Loðband Einband, an laceweight yarn I've bought in Iceland last summer, in the color black.

I have to say, I'm very happy with the combination. The reds and orange colors work very nicely with the black and the black make those colors simply pop.


While blocking I found it had a bit different shape than I expected, but I like it. As the 'arms' of the shawl are somewhat longer, they stand well on my shoulder when I'm wearing the shawl.
Even though I knew I was knitting the 'large' version of the pattern it turned out a bit bigger than I really wanted. Done the center line it's a good 60cm long, and across about 150cm.


This picture is probable truest in color. Isn't it gorgeous?

The Icelandic yarn was very rough while knitting, but it softened a lot in the wash and it blocked out beautifully. The Zauberball is a dream to work with and I know this won't be the last project using that yarn.

By the way, I did cast on a second daybreak already ....