Twisp of Fate

I’ve been reading a series of mystery novels by Ann Cleeves which are set in the Shetland Islands,  a place we visited 11 years ago.  They have reminded me of the use of the word “peerie” which means little, or small.  I am used to hearing it in association with the small filler-type patterns in Fair Isle sweaters, but it has more general use, as “when I was a peerie boy…”.

So here are the peerie blankets or lap robes I have been weaving during July and August.  I finally got around to the finish work last week (braiding the fringes, then fulling them in the washing machine).  For the most part I am still working my way through my vast stash of 2-ply Shetland knitting yarn – I have it down to a science how much I need of 8 colors for the 3-yard warps!  Sometimes I have supplemented with Harrisville Shetland on cones, or other wool knitting yarns.

This one is different, though.  I was given 2 skeins of hand-dyed, hand-spun Romney yarn in shades of purple at knitting retreat last year.  Not the softest yarn for knitting, but she thought maybe I could “do something with it” weaving.  Indeed!  I used the hand-spun for the warp but did not have enough for the full width of the blanket/throw, so I supplemented it with Satakieli (a wool yarn from Finland) and also some Harrisville Shetland in the center section.

#6 with hand-dyed, handspun Romney yarn

This one was done with 2-ply Shetland left over from a kit I bought many years ago from Tomato Factory Yarn Co.  It was for the Alice Starmore design called Luskentyre, which is also found in the pattern book called The Scottish Collection (long out of print).  They must have given me a lot of yarn in the kit, because I had a lot left over.  I did supplement it with other similar colors I had in the stash.

# 7 Luskentyre

Here it is with the sweater.  The blanket was woven with a purple weft so it isn’t nearly as light in color as the sweater, which also included a lot of cream colored wool.

Here are two more. One was done in shades of black to mid gray with a light gray weft, and the other in shades of brown with a cream weft.

#8 grays

#9 browns

And finally, another blue one:

#10 shades of blue with teal weft