St Kilda shawl

My little shawl is finished. I think I like it.

I used an Old Shell pattern from Sharon Miller's Shetland Hap Shawl, and a Celtic Knot from A Gathering of Lace. I added a few rows of a dark brown and a light brown handspun North Ronaldsay yarn I found in my stash, and also a few rows of a handspun dark brownish gray Shetland yarn.

After publishing the first version of this post I found I need to add: the yarns I used are the two St Kilda from Blacker Yarns that I showed in an earlier post: Roots.

Some Boreray sheep at Woolfest 2011:

Roots

A couple of years ago I spun a few locks of Boreray wool. I wrote about it here: Boreray. Jane sent me the wool, and later she wrote an article about Boreray in Yarnmaker. I added my own experience and my photos to the article. The wool was fascinating. I felt something touch me when I handled it. Jane experienced the same, and she went on working with Boreray wool. You can read about it in her blog: mrs woolsack's blog.

I now have four balls of this precious yarn, two balls of the Boreray/Soay Blend and two of the Soay/Boreray/Shetland Blend. Both are lovely yarns. They are spun into high quality lace yarns by Blacker Yarns, that amazing mill that spins miracles. I am knitting a shawl/scarf I'll show you later.

Isn't it wonderful that there are people who won't let the threads to our history break? Ancient wools, new yarns.