I’ve had this one for soooooo long but couldn’t blog or Ravelry about it as it was a top secret test knit! I’m so glad I can now share this one as the book was released to pre-order and ebooks became available yesterday. 🙂 This is the Onward shawl by Shannon Cook aka luvinthemommyhood:

This shawl is a part of the new book JOURNEY by Shannon and Jane Richmond. I LOVE this book! I can see myself making everything in this! I already have the Antrorse sweater in my queue! Pity it’s coming into summer here…

This pattern was just AMAZING to knit! So simple and great TV knitting. There’s nothing hard in it, just knits, purls and yarn overs. The pattern is really easy to memorise and you can just fly through it. Towards the end there were a lot of stitches and it was getting a bit heavy and awkward on my lap but I loved every minute! 🙂 My finished shawl measured 176cm wingspan by 90cm depth. It’s taller than me! 🙂

The pattern calls for a 10 ply (worsted weight) 100% wool yarn as it needs to be wet blocked but I used an 85% wool and 15% angora mix from Bendigo Woollen Mills. The yarn was a limited offering called Cameo and I used the Mist colourway. When I ordered the yarn I thought it was 100% wool but I was wrong! 😦 I was so scared I’d get into trouble as it was a test knit but the different blend didn’t affect the outcome in any way. The stitch definition was wonderful and the angora content made the yarn so soft. When I’ve worn the shawl everyone wants to touch it because it is just so soft! 🙂  Sooooo sooooofffffftttt… 😉

I just love the modern styling of Shannon’s designs. I have a thing for geometrics and the arrows really do it for me in this pattern. Arrow designs feature on the Antrorse sweater too so you can see why I have that in my queue! Very generously, Shannon gifted me a copy of the ebook on Ravelry as a thank you for participating in the test knit. Thank you so much Shannon if you’re reading! I really appreciate it! My Ravelry page for my Onward Shawl can be found here.

So there’s my first FO for this week. I have finished my Alpinia cardigan too, I just need to take some pictures to go along with the post. 🙂 Hopefully will have it up shortly.