My silence explained

I'm sorry for the silence over the past couple of weeks. I was traveling - visiting my daughter in South America. I had a wonderful time. Not much fiber related news though. I picked up this book which is fascinating. It includes the history of weaving, techniques and designs - including the meaning of some of the traditional ones.
Here are some photos of traditional designs.Lovely photos of the people weaving and preparing the fiber. I did see women spinning on a drop spindle, dyeing, weaving and preparing fiber in traditional ways.I also got a lot of knitting done. I finished the Faroese shawl from the Faroese shawl book. I blocked it yesterday and am wearing it right now. It is made from sock yarns so it is machine washable.
Here is a closeup of the fabric. The two Mini Mochi yarns are soft and fuzzy and the Socks that Rock on the top and the border is more textured and tightly spun. Overall it is nice and wearable. I can tie it behind my back in the traditional Faroese style if I wish.
This is an overview of the entire shawl as it was drying. It is very bright and colorful for these gray winter days. I call it Land and Sea as it reminds me of the ocean, the undergrowth and then mountains and trees in the background.
I started knitting another small shawl out of sock yarn on my trip but it is only about 2/3 done. I'll post pics of it next time.

The straight-away

Thank you for all the lovely comments on the shawl. Your support and admiration have kept me going. The chocolate espresso bread is straight out of Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. You can get some recipes from an article published in Mother Earth News and from the authors' blog posts. It is a tad too long in the instructions for me to repeat it here.

Here is a view of what the shawl will look like when it is done. Of course it isn't blocked yet so you can see puckers on one side and it is stretched out on the other side. The edging is not grafted yet and the neck edging needs to be done but these are tiny efforts compared to what has been completed.

To celebrate, and because I needed a break with easy knitting, I decided to start a new shawl. This is loosely based on Ingili from Føroysk Bindingarmynstur / Faroese Knitting Patterns aka Bundanaurriklaedid. I am not doing a lace pattern, unlike the original, and my gauge is not as fine as the one pictured in Judy Gibson's site (at the link). I am just doing a simple st pattern of 3 rows knit and 1 row purl. A closeup shows the ridges.

The sts are all crowded on the needle so it is not easy to see in the bigger picture. But each 2 rows are smaller than the previous 2 so it will get easier as I go on. I started with a provisional CO as I'll come back and figure out how to finish the bottom edge after I complete the shawl.