I was recently given the opportunity to review yarn for Round Mountain Fibers (US Customers use this link) Monica was so generous she sent me three hanks of yarn, so we'll give some away in our ongoing KALS.

First off, the Round Mountain has a super clever way of classifying their colourways; there are ornithology, entomology and botany collections. All of them are spectacular and hand dyed in Vermont. I particularly love the Atlantic Puffin colourway, along with Cecropia Caterpillar and Wild Mustard. All of the colourways come in your choice of 50g or 100g skeins in either fingering or worsted weight so you can pick your poison. Just a heads up, the international site is still priced in USD. The website also has kits and some pretty amazing patterns. Not to mention their Drunk Yarn dyeing kits. You seriously need to take a look. Go on now, I'll wait right here. 

You're back. They are delightful aren't they? I opted to use the fingering weight 100% merino in the Succulents colourway that was sent our way to make my first (but not my last) pair of Rose City Rollers. I did opt to use a contrasting colour with nylon in in it for my heels and toes. The merino has a good twist to it so I felt comfortable enough using it for socks, but I do like to have a little bit of extra strength in the areas that will see more abrasion. I found that the yarn was rougher on my hands than I'm used to while I was working with it. That being said I think it's softened since blocking and wearing.  I've been wearing my socks for about two weeks and they're holding up well. They're comfortable and haven't lost their shape despite multiple wearings between washings.  

Final thoughts, I think Round Mountain Fibers is definitely worth checking out. Monica is friendly and efficient to work with. The colourways are, frankly, spectacular and unique, and did you see the mini skein collections? Besides, if you've been working hard on your #committoknit2018 you're going to need to replenish your stash, right? You can get your stash enhancement on for 50% off right now with the coupon code 'ocanada' at check out. SWEET!

Keep knitting relentlessly, 

Emily

The shawl is knit back and forth, where when working on the right side, you work the four increases and on the wrong side no increases are worked.

Crescent shaped shawls are similar to triangular shawls in that they start with a garter tab but are different because there are more increases placed only at the beginning and end of the rows on both sides of the work. Crescent shaped shawls generally have two increases on either end of the row on the right side of the knitting and one increase on either end of the wrong side of the row. These six increases produce rapid growth in fabric along the edges and the crescent shape. ​

Asymmetrical and Side-to-Side shaped shawls are similar in that they both start at a long edge point with very few cast on stitches. Because they are knit from point to point width-wise instead of center out as in the first three shawls, they don’t require a garter tab.

The side-to-side shawl construction requires one increase every other row. When you’ve reached the desired shawl depth the increase changes to a decrease. ​

Although there are five different shawl shapes covered here there are many others, such as pie shaped which is a full circle starting from the center out or a hap which can be triangular or square where the interior is knit first and a border is applied after. Also, the above shawls have many modifications on their basic mathematics that create new shapes. For example, two triangular shawls attached edge-to-edge create a parallelogram or connected along the top edges to create a rectangle. A more central placement of the right side increase in an asymmetrical shawl creates an arrow shape.

Below are Ravelry links to some good examples of the different shawl shapes that I’ve favorited.

Crescent Shawls - http://ravel.me/K-Rae/cssos

Asymmetrical Shawls - http://ravel.me/K-Rae/assos

Semi-Circular Shawls - http://ravel.me/K-Rae/sssos

Side to Side Shawls - http://ravel.me/K-Rae/stsssos

Triangular Shawls - http://ravel.me/K-Rae/tssos


If you’re interested in further exploring shapes and construction of shawls I recommend this free online course by Aroha Knits. http://www.arohaknits.com/5-shawls-5-days-challenge-sign-in/ Or check the local LYSs for shawl classes.

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