Cinnabar

 

It's no secret that I love Andrea Mowry's designs, so when her new shawl pattern Cinnabar came out in August, I shamelessly bought it immediately.

The pattern calls for Spincycle Versus and Spincycle Dyed in the Wool, which of course are beautiful yarns, but are a little pricey and can be hard to find.  Seeing as how I know how to dye yarn and have "a few" cones of undyed yarn around, I measured out and dyed up the what I needed for my version within minutes of downloading the pattern.

Interestingly, the shawl pattern indicates a DK weight main color, and a sport weight contrast color.  This resulted in a depth and texture to the shawl that are really striking.  I used  my Silky Ewe, a DK weight 85% Polwarth Wool/15% Silk blend, and a new sport weight that I really love, (for now I am calling it "Sport" because I am just so original) which is 80% Superwash Merino Wool/10% Cashmere/10% Nylon.  

The shawl is an asymmetrical triangle, with one side section consisting of garter stitch with the two colors alternated.  The other side is a gorgeous two-color brioche.  I learned two color brioche recently and though I was not 100% confident with it when I started the shawl, I was quite confident by the time I finished this very large shawl, which gave me enough practice that things that had been intimidating and terrifying (like dropped stitches and other small mistakes) are now no problem.  

 

As you can see, it really is big and cozy.  I loved it so much I cast on another one in brighter teals and purples:

I love everything about this shawl, from the elegant center line delineating the two sections, to the stout, squishy brioche columns, to the soft color blending of the garter stitch section.  Mwah! 

Of course now there are kits . . . 

and 

You can find them here!