Alberta Beaded Shawl Knitting Kit With shops Yarn Sets From TUS

A marriage made in heaven!

Combine the glorious design called Alberta, created by Anne-Lise Maigaard with the stunning colorwork as dyed by Kelly of The Unique Sheep, and what do you get?

It is paradise for a knitter.

*****

The Design

Here is how Anne-Lise describes this new shawl pattern of hers:

The Alberta Shawl features leaves and waves and of course the wild rose edging. Work it in three colours or two or one, or go wild and crazy and use up all your coordinating fancy yarn left-overs in the waves section.

The Yarn

The shawl as written calls for a heavy lace weight yarn plus your choice of 6/0 or 8/0 beads. I hunted around looking for three coordinating colors of a heavy lace weight to offer for this -- by coordinating, I simply mean three colors that look "right" together. If you look at the lovely examples on the project pages, you'll get an idea of what I wanted.

It was harder than I expected.

And then I had a brilliant idea!

Fast forward to Kelly of The Unique Sheep -- a wonderful person to work with if you want to play with colors. And we created four different mixes of colors, designed to create marvelous color blocks for this shawl.

Happiness!

And then Kelly had another brilliant idea -- which both Anne-Lise and I heartily approved.

Working together, she and I put together another color intended as a contrasting strip in the shawl.

Anne-Lise suggests using the contrast color for the Waves section to create what she calls a winning combination. Think of it as a special pause highlighting the colors.

Or alternativley, you might choose to put it at the bind-off to create an intriguing edging. The choice shops is yours. Big smiles!

The original kits included 865 yards total of three related colors in our heavy lace weight yarn called Cirrus plus a small skein of this "accent" color.

The only change is to our yarn base. Our current yarn is Selene, a 100% superwash merino, with 875 yards (800m) per 100g.

The darker skein in each trio has 265 yards, the other two have 300 yards. This gives you well more than you need to knit the shawl as-is. Each set also comes with a smaller skein of 150 yards in a specially designed Accent Color (as mentioned above).

Kelly and I put together four colorways that we hope you will like as much as we do. They can be seen in the inset photos in the top picture and again the four photos below that. The other pictures show the finished shawl and is there to show you the design.

****

The Colorways

The second photo on this page shows what we are calling Alberta Rose. It is based on the lovely photo of the Alberta Rose flower that was sent to us on our Ravelry forum by stitchalong (Rav name).

The Gradiance skeins run from a very very pale pink through to pink and then to rose, with the Accent skein a medium green.

Alberta Oberon is based on our signature King Oberon colorway and plays with variations on purple.

The three Gradiance skeins range from a pale lilac through a gradual deepening into a royal purple. The Accent skein is a lovely goldenrod, giving a complimentary-color look to the whole.

Alberta Moss is based on a brand-new colorway we were working on with Kelly, one that we were calling Mossy Stone.

A marvelous mix of moss greens, the Gradiance skeins gradually darken (or lighten, depending on how you look at it) -- this one is simply wonderful. It is earthy and rich; I can almost smell the loam. And the Accent color is a deep aubergine; a shadowy purple that adds a marvelous depth.

Take a look at the next-to-last photo on this page to see the beautiful piece that ckwquilt (Raverly name) has created with this colorway. Almost takes my breath away....

The fourth option is based on the colorway that we named Magic Mirror and so this stunning play on teals is our Alberta Magic Mirror now.

In its slightly changed incarnation the Gradiance set is a sequence of teals, ranging from a very pale, through to a medium sea teal and then finishing with a rich deep blue teal. The whole is wonderfully rich; and the Accent color is a vibrant violet, which acts as a terrific foil for the set.

The last photo on this page (courtesy of maryscottrph) is of a Magic Mirror set knit up. Yum!

****

The Beads

Now let's talk beads: For a lace weight yarn, I generally advise the lighter (and smaller) 8/0 beads though Anne-Lise recommends either the 8/0s or the 6/0s.

What is needed is between 646 beads (small size) and 738 beads (large size). In size 8/0 beads that is just around 20 grams. In size 6/0 beads, you'd need close to 70 grams.

Your kit will automatically include 20 grams of the size 8/0 beads.

(If you decide you'd prefer the larger 6/0s, email me and we'll work it out.)

I see three ways to go with beads, or actually four.

We can stick with neutral colors, like Silver Lined Crystal or S/L Crystal AB; these would stand out beautifully.

Or we could go with beads that "go" with the main colors, such as Silver Lined Amethyst AB with the Alberta Oberon to give one example.

Or we could add beads that work with the Accent colors and connect the whole in a wonderful way. As an example again, the Alberta Oberon in that case might have S/L Dark Gold AB beads, so the gold is sprinkled around the whole and brings the Accent color more into play.

I am setting up a drop-down menu so you can choose Main color for your beads, Accent color for your beads, or Neutrals.

Or if you would like to leave it up to me, choose "Whatever!" :-)