Revisiting one of her most popular patterns, designer Helen Stewart from Curious Handmade has just released a special edition of her Afternoon Tea shawlette. Originally published in Knitty in 2012, the vintage-inspired pattern has garnered almost 1000 projects on Ravelry, introduced many new knitters to the wonders of lace, and hit a special chord with brides who wanted it to be a part of their special day. When Helen decided to revisit Afternoon Tea, she added a new, full-sized shawl version to the pattern and rewrote the instructions in the special percentage checklist style that has become so popular with her knitters and fans. We’re excited that she chose Anzula Luxury Yarns Squishy for her new samples. They turned out absolutely beautiful.

“I completely fell in love with Squishy, and I’m going to be looking for every opportunity to use this yarn in the near future. It’s an absolute pleasure on the needles. The softness, sheen, and most of all the wonderful colours have really stolen my heart. I knit the new small sample myself, in Teal, which may be my favourite colour, ever (if I had to pick one!) It used one full skein pretty exactly, which was wonderful.”

“The new larger sample, in the Candied Apple colourway, was knit by my mum. I was so grateful for her help, as she’s an absolutely beautiful knitter and I was a bit overloaded with work at the time, but I have to say it was hard to hand over those two skeins! I really wanted to just keep knitting with Squishy for as long as I could!”

“I just got the shade card in the mail the other day with all of the colors, and it absolutely made my heart sing. I just can’t say enough about it. It’s my new love affair!”

The special edition of the pattern, with the new size and checklist instructions, is available to buy now on Ravelry. For anyone who would like to try the free version of the pattern, it’s still available on Knitty and always will be!

If you’d like to learn more about Helen and her work, she’s HellsBells on Ravelry, and the host of the Curious Handmade podcast and blog.