My take on the Elise-shawl

The last couple of years I've been snapping away on our hunting trips, on the beach, in the veld, and noticed a recurring theme...

...starting with this rock rose in the Free State

The next year  when we visited, I noticed it on the aloe as well:

And the thorny cactus thingey on the stoep

(sorry...not into the cactus trend, I don't know the name :-D

 But it's not a new thing.  Remember my Klein Karoo stool cover from this photo?

Can you see it now?

The soft greyish green tipped with pinks?

I kept seeing it everywhere.

Outside a beach house at Gourits:

In the Montagu Pass:

My best ever favourite flower in the Garden Route Botanical Garden:

(look at the stem as well!)

These tiny flowers in the Groot Swartberg near De Rust:

There's no better place for a workshop in colour combination than your nearest outdoors.  

So.  I wanted to make a shawl (having never ever before worn or made a triangular shawl).  It would be greenish and the only colour it could ever be is Vinnis Nikkim Khaki.  Nothing else.  As for the pink tips, I was thinking about a hot pink lacy or tiny tiny edge...then various other pinks came to mind when I started looking through my stash.  In the end I used a softer pink from Elle Premier Cotton.

As for the pattern, I wanted to hook up a lacy shawl, not too difficult, not too holey and the Elise shawl was the obvious one that ticked all the boxes.

I had a whole pile of Khaki squares from trying out patterns for my summer throw and I re-used most of these, so I have no idea of how much yarn went into it!

Done!

I love how the green comes alive due to the hand dyeing. 

I started the lacy edge off a diagram from a website in a language that I can't even decipher; it's not Russian, it could be anything.  After the first row I winged it on my own. 

Unblocked I thought it might be too dense:
(hanging off the kitchen counter, held in place by salt & pepper, sugar pots :-D  )

It could have done with a severe block, buuuuut the "neckline" part pulled too tight.  Aaaaand I realised almost 75% of the way through that I not making the tr in the middle of the cluster, but a dc...

So.  After a light block, it came out really pretty, but I would love to see it more opened up.

I was surprised by how comfortable a triangle sits, and would love a wider one, with longer wings.  Therefor, I'm already onto V.2, with the correct cluster, and a slight modification to try and get the wings longer!  This green one is now off to Maak 'n Verskil who also runs a project with Prayer Shawls for cancer patients.  I though this would be quite fitting, as I completed  the shawl during Breast Cancer Awareness month, and the pink ties in with that, while the green would refer to my mom, a Klein Karoo girl, whom we lost to breast cancer 16 years ago.

All the while I'm thinking what I would name this shawl - it should be my Dolly shawl then.

For her :-)