August Project of the Month - Dawn's Haruni Shawl

This month's project is a beautiful shawl knit by Dawn (myrrhmary on Ravelry) in Anzula Breeze.

The pattern is Haruni, a free pattern available on Ravelry. Here's what Dawn has to say about this project.

I used smaller needle than the pattern called for for the lace weight yarn, a #3,  and did extra repeats of pattern to compensate. Ended with 16 “stems” on each side. I love it! I did the I-cord bind off, which took forever, and was a good incentive to learn to crochet. * I Actually like the look of the i-cord bind-off better. I really loved this shawl, especially after blocking and planned to keep it and wear it all the time. The project I planned for my mom's birthday didn't go so well and I ended up giving it to her instead. Love this yarn, so soft and beautiful. It has a wonderful shine and lovely to touch.

Thank you Dawn! The shawl is lovely and what a great present for your mom. She looks great in it.

ArtHop and Open House

Looking for a chance to shop for Anzula yarns in person? Great news! Next week for August's ArtHop, the Anzula Studio will be having an open house. On Thursday August 5th, from 5pm to 8pm we'll be on Fulton in front of Iron Bird Lofts. Then on Friday and Saturday (August 6th and 7th) the studio will be open from 10am to 5pm. During our open house you can come by and see the studio, hang out and knit, and have the very rare opportunity to purchase yarn direct from us.

We will have all our yarn bases in stock and available for purchase, along with lots of spinning fiber. If you've been reading about our yarns, here on the blog, or on Ravelry, this is a great chance to see and touch all the colors and bases in person. Squishy must be squished to be believed. Hope to see you next week!

Better Know a Yarn Line - For Better or Worsted

Here's another new repeating feature on the Anzula blog. I'm going to be knitting at least three full sized swatches of each of the yarn lines and posting pictures with gauge information. Today I'm starting out with For Better or Worsted in Maple.

For Better or Worsted (aka FBOW) is a heavy worsted weight blend of 80% Superwash Merino, 10% Cashmere and 10% Nylon. In all my swatches, I knit in the needle size. The purl bumps in the lower right hand corner of the stockinette part of the swatch represent the needle size. This way, I don't have to write down what size needles I used.

This first swatch is knit on size 7 needles. I got 19 stitches and 30 rows over 4". This is a pretty dense gauge for this yarn. It's still soft, but doesn't have as nice a drape as some of the larger needle sizes. This gauge would work well for mittens or particularly windproof hats

The second swatch is on size 8 needles. I got 18 stitches and 28 rows over 4". This is what I think the sweet spot for this yarn is. It has a nice drape, but is still opaque. This would be a very nice garment gauge.

The third swatch is on size 9 needles. I got 17 stitches and 26 rows over 4". This is a nice drapey gauge. It would be perfect for a floppy beret style hat, or if you like your sweaters at a looser gauge.

And finally, this last swatch is just me having some fun with the yarn. There's a 4 stitch cable, some reverse stockinette, and some seed stitch. I knit this swatch on size 8 needles. The seed stitch in particular looks great in this yarn.

I hope this is helpful for people. Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions on how I could make this feature better. Tune in next time for swatches of our Sport/DK weight yarn, Cricket. Oh, and a shiny gold star if you know the reference in the post title.