Pattern Up!

Just this afternoon I added a new FREE pattern to Ravelry. Vivienne is a shawlette, 50" wide with a 15" drop. It is triangular and knit from the top down in in mostly stockinette stitch with channeled eyelet rows. The increases happen every row along the side edges and every other row down the center. This creates a shawl with a much bigger wingspan than drop. Great for wrapping around your neck on a cool evening. I used a little less than a full skein of Cascade Yarns Heritage Hand Paints, a very nice yarn that has a nice drape when knit with slightly larger than usual needles.

The name, Vivienne, is borrowed from the heroine to the book The Soldier's Wife, by Margaret Laroy, a novel set in the Channel Islands during the German occupation of World War II. Vivienne learns that she can adjust to difficult situations while still dealing with love and compassion for her friends and family.

Follow the link to the right to download this pattern through Ravelry.

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What I Did on My Summer Vacation

by, Lynn Anne Banks

Most of our family traveled to France to celebrate the 80th birthdays of my parents this year. My lovely, kind, and generous sister (along with her husband) found this lovely villa in Rousillon, located in the Luberon region in Provence. Socializing into the wee hours of the night on the terrace and little excursions into the countryside were the order of our days.

Dave was a sweetie and drove me further out to a small farm in Sainte-Croix-a-Lauze...a lavender and mohair type of farm! The mohair is sold to a co-op, shipped to Italy to be processed, and then returned to small farm shops in Provence. I picked up some mohair and silk in the owner's lovely little shop:

and...

Ooh, la-la!

And then there were the curly-haired Angora goats who give us the lovely fiber. The girl on the left was especially friendly, enjoying chin scratches as only goats can!

Dave and I then took the fast TGV train up to Paris for a few days sight-seeing.

A limited amount of knitting took place, mostly on the plane somewhere over the northern Atlantic, but wine, cheese, and bread were consumed in large amounts. Ahhh, Paris!

And that is what I did on my summer vacation.