Fireflies Rising Shawlette.......and pattern giveaway.

“Now, from the thick grass, the firefliesbegin to rise:up, then down, then up again:lit on the ascending flight,drifting simultaneously to the same height,–exactly like the bubbles in champagne.”

- A Cold Spring by Elizabeth Bishop

I'm back today, as promised, with a FO and a pattern giveaway!!!!!! Last week, I did a test knit for designer, Helen Stewart, it was for a beautiful crescent shape shawl called Fireflies Rising

Helen designs the most beautiful shawls and accessories, I first discovered her designs back in October, when I came across her knitting podcast called Curious Handmade. I'm knitting the Twinkle Twinkle baby blanket at the moment, which is one of her designs.

This shawlette only uses a 100g skein of 4ply yarn, so most sock yarns would work well. I used Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in Curiousity, which is a gorgeous sock yarn but soft enough to use for a shawl as it's 100% superwash merino. I wear my shawls wrapped around my neck as a scarf in the winter, like in the above photo but though this is called a shawlette, it is plenty big enough to drape around your shoulders on those spring days when you no longer need those big winter coats but want something to keep the chill off.

The pattern calls for 437 yards of yarn, the yarn I was using only had 395 yards, this wasn't a problem though. I ran out of yarn about 10 stitches from the end of casting off but all I did was tink back and cast off the last row, instead. This worked out absolutely fine, so if you have less yarn than the pattern calls for, you can just make the ribbed border, slightly smaller.
It is a quick, easy one skein project, it has enough interest in the pattern for advanced knitters but would make a great project for those who've never knit a shawl before as it is a simple lace pattern and no short rows. I really enjoyed knitting this for Helen and as usual, like all of Helen's patterns, it was very well written and easy to follow.
It was written in the same way as the Frangipani Shawl that I knit back in February. Helen gives you percentages though the pattern so you can see how far you've got but also if you weigh your yarn, you can check how much yarn you're using and that you're on track with your yardage.

Now for the best bit, Helen, has kindly offered not just this pattern but the whole Dream Big collection, that includes this pattern and the Frangipani Shawl but each month you will receive a new pattern until October. This e-book will include ten patterns altogether, once all the patterns have been released, it retails at £12 but one lucky person will receive it free of charge, you've got to be in it to win it!!!!!
All I want you to do to be in with a chance of winning it, is to take a look at Helen's other patterns, that you can find, here, and tell me what your favourite pattern is, it's as easy as that!!!!! If you are a no-reply blogger, you may want to include your email address so I can get in touch with you, otherwise check back here on Wednesday morning. I will put all the names in a teacup and chose one at random, I will close the comments on Tuesday 8th April 11:59pm (GMT).
Helen will send the Dream Big collection to your Ravelry account, if you haven't got one, it's easy to sign up, free of charge and definitely worth doing as there are thousands of knitting and crochet patterns on there, including many free patterns. Good luck everyone!!!!!!

Check out Tami's blog for more Finished Objects, this week.
Have a great weekend, whatever you're up to, I'm attending a Patchwork Workshop tomorrow, which I'm really looking forward too.
xxxxDebxxxx