Well, at the rate that I’m posting the ‘Maya Knits’ posts there is a danger you might think that this is a yarn shop owner that never knits, but I do, honestly, I do. It is just that I do have an issue with – and I’ll admit it – I do have an issue with finishing off. I simply hate weaving in ends! I know there are knitters out there who love this part of a project, but I’m clearly not one of them. If you are anything like me, my best tip is to do a few ends as you go. As soon as you are absolutely sure that you’re not going to have to rip anything back, weave in the ends, this is how I do it, most of the time.

And then there are occasions when I don’t, like with both of the shawls I’m about to show you. Both of these were done ‘ages ago’ and then abandoned in their zip lock bags, waiting for me to build the motivation to weave in their ends. I did get around to it though, eventually, and now I can finally post one of these posts again – proving what I’ve actually been knitting.

You might have noticed the Homeward Bound Shawl we released the pattern for last spring, it has had a bit of a momentum over at Instagram, if you do a search for #homewardboundshawl you’ll find quite a few progress and finished shawls pictures. This was a design collaboration with the very talented Natalie Selles and we were so excited about the result that the Knit with attitude staff have all made our individual versions, and this is mine!

For the shop we curated three set of shades which are available as kits, they all work beautifully together, but if you feel a bit more adventurous you can get the Homeward Bound single pattern from Natalie’s Ravelry Store, and come up with your own colour way in the Socks Yeah! This is what I did, and the colours I chose are the 102 Ammolite, 108 Chryso, 109 Iolite and 114 Peridot. By the way – we just launched the six new autumn colours of the Socks Yeah! so there are lots and lots to choose from.

My second shawl is The Color Craving by Stephen West, I found this pattern in his Westknits Bestknits – Number 1 Shawls. Although this shawl ended up like the size of me, it was really quick to do (until I came to the ends that is), the rows literally flew off the needles – what an incredibly fun knit!

I have to say, I was rather eh… experimental when coming to picking the colours for this one. It was a case of gorgeous hand dyes that looked so good when holding them next to each other as hanks, but that probably could have worked better in a different combo. I chose the Hedgehog Fibres Skinny Singles in (a particularly dark batch of the) Poison, Oracle and Fool’s Gold. Half way though I realised that my speckled Oracle and Fool’s Gold didn’t have much contrast between them, and that my semi-solid Poison ended up quite dark combined with the other two brighter ones. I do believe that this design would probably benefit from being done in more solid colours rather than speckled ones. But what can I say, the knit was so exciting that I couldn’t stop – and I am pleased with the result, the shawl is super-soft, super-squishy and will keep me super-warm over the upcoming winter months – and that is three wins in one!