What better way to start a Shawl-Along than with a new shawl design?
Kinderdijk is a square knitted in the round. Inspired by the Shetland tradition but with a modern application, the work begins with a circular cast-on and then worked outwards in the round. The centre section features traditional Shetland motifs which segue into a wide border which finally forms its own scalloped edging. No need for a marathon knitted-on edging with this one!

The name comes from the wide border. While I was knitting it, friends commented that it reminded them of windmills. I hadn't seen it myself until then but I saw what they meant. The cross shapes look like the blades of traditional Dutch windmills, and that thought brought me to Kinderdijk.

See? Windmills! Rows of them, just like the shawl!
Anyway, the pattern is available in my Ravelry store, and you can find the Shawl-Along thread here. The Shawl-Along runs until the end of June so there's plenty of time to come and join in, make yourself (or someone else!) a shawl or scarf and win a coupon code for a free pattern and possibly another prize too.

No, I haven't suddenly changed this to a cookery blog. That is the bottom drawer of our family freezer and yes, it is full of spinning fibre. This weekend I had a great weekend away with knitting friends which included a trip to a local fibre shop. I had taken spinning projects with me and bought more fibre while I was there. Unfortunately, we discovered too late after we had all arrived and left knitting and spinning supplies here, there and everywhere, that the house we had rented was infested with carpet beetles. The first one was discovered in one of the upstairs bedrooms (on one of the beds), and then the more we looked the more we found. All over the living room carpet, in several more of the bedrooms, the critters were all over the place.
It's not the adult carpet beetle that does the damage to wool. It's their larvae that likes to munch their way through woolly goodies, but the adults lay eggs which hatch into larvae and none of us wanted our knitting projects to become nests for carpet beetles.
It's fair to say this weekend I have learned more than I had ever thought I would about getting rid of possible carpet beetle activity in your knitting and spinning stash. First of all, they like the dark, so keeping everything moving and exposed to the light regularly will discourage them. Second, if you wash anything washable, you wash any beetles, larvae or eggs away, so that's good. The difficulty is with stuff you can't wash. Treating carpets and soft furnishings probably requires professional pest control, but none of us were taking any of that lot home with us, so it was just a case of making sure stash and projects are clear. The trick there seems to be either heat or extreme cold, or both. Putting your stash in the freezer for at least 48-72 hours will kill any adult beetles or larvae. Thawing it out again encourages the hatching of any viable eggs left in there, and freezing again for another 48-72 hours will kill off anything else. Alternatively, a temperature of 50 degrees C for a minimum of 30 minutes will also kill any livestock in your stash. That's a very low setting in a domestic oven, but keep a very close eye on it. You don't want to set fire to your stash! Or a car in full sun on a hot day can easily reach an internal temperature of 50C or more. Baking the stash in the car could work if you live in an appropriate climate.

Anyone who knows my designs at all will know that I am a fan of the shawl and the scarf. My very first design was a shawlette (Yarnshine), and I currently have 19 shawl/scarf/shawlette designs available, with six more at various stages in process! So if I'm going to host a themed KAL (knit-along), what better subject to choose than the shawl or scarf?!

The KAL will start on May 22nd and run until the end of June 30th, and all finished objects will be eligible for prizes. Any design in my Ravelry store Shawls and Scarves bundle can play. If you already own the pattern it won't cost you anything. Alternatively, if you want to treat yourself to a new pattern from the bundle, use coupon code ShawlAlong and get a 35% discount from now until the KAL begins. The perfect opportunity to stock up on your summer knitting patterns!!

I'm going to be joining in, making myself another Kingsdown Cliffs poncho (I'm including this - I figure a poncho is little different from a huge shawl).

​Come on over to my Ravelry group where the KAL is to be hosted - you can find the KAL thread right here! Looking forward to seeing you there!

​What will you make? Which yarn will you use?