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Saturday 1 September 2012

Butterflies and Buds

Found this gorgeous caterpillar the other day on my fennel in the garden.


I've been searching the internet to try and find out which butterfly it will become, and all information seemed to point to it being a black swallowtail.  The problem is, I've only ever seen white swallowtails here, so maybe that's what it is.



The other news is, I've finally finished the Buds of May shawl.  I've had lots of problems with this pattern, mainly because the whole thing was a series of charts, which I find very difficult to follow, especially when they have you constantly referring to other charts for parts of each row.  I'd rather have a written pattern any day.  It was pretty accurate though (my problems usually stemmed from my lack of understanding of the pattern, and I'm not what you would call a "beginner" by any means), but I did find a few errors in the last 4 or 5 rows.  I just followed my instincts there, and it worked out OK.

Preliminary photo (there'll be a final "showy" one when I've had time to sew in the ends and block it) :-


I only realised when I got near to the end of this, just how much wool I have left.  I think I could easily have done the next size up, but there's no way I'm taking it back now!

The next shawl is definitely for me - just have to work out which fleece I'll use, then spin it!  Will it be a Buds of May?  Probably, because I do really like the pattern.  Next time, though, it'll be a lot easier . . . I wrote out the pattern as I went along (a real labour of love that was!) so it definitely should be easier to do.

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