Sailing Pi Big Reveal

Ahhhh. I'm so sad it's over! I've loved this process from start to finish (apart from a few niggles that I'll tell you about in a mo). First - let's get onto the good stuff.

This is the pattern written exclusively for the Knit Nottingham Three Ships Came Sailing Pi Box. The first one we've ever done and the pattern that inspired and kick started all this box nonsense. The original version was a massive hit in the shop and I hope it will be a massive hit with everybody that bought the box.

(Look at me trying to be a model! Ha! There are about 50 photos of me just being a moron. Three came out acceptably...).

It's a shawl!!! Obviously! But it's one of those shawls somewhere between full sized and shawlette that works perfectly over your shoulders or around your neck as an interesting scarf. I was wearing it both ways over my holiday and can't wait to wear it again now it's not a secret anymore.

The shaping is like a standard shawl+ in that it starts from the top and gets bigger and you finish by casting off on the long side. But you can see there are two spines which makes for a more flattering shape (nobody needs a bit pointy arrow down to their bum really, do they?).

 

The yarn used is the King Cole Bamboo Cotton DK in Navy (or Claret) and King Cole Bamboo Cotton 4ply in Cream. It provides a nice textural contrast without being one of those weird too thick in parts to be summery and too thin in parts to be wintery. They match, making a contrast that works in your everyday life. And, being Bamboo it draaaaaaaaaaaaapes like you wouldn't believe.


The stitches are very simple - stocking stitch and garter stitch. Until you get to the very end where you have five rows of something more interesting. All of the excitement before then is based on the Fibonacci striping sequence which will be enough to keep you on your toes without getting in the way of real life (like watching Big Brother...). It did cause a little ripping for me though so I'd feel less like a tit if you let me know when you go wrong - fanx.

And that's the pattern - you like? Alright alright, one more shot:

The pattern was the big thing for me with these boxes. It informed the yarn that came with them and the gifts. AND WHAT GIFTS! Only, this is one of the things that went wrong. The highlight was deffo the seaside tat willies. Five of you got them and hopefully you loved them. :) Anyway, that's a lie, it wasn't the highlight - this was:

Stitch markers by the marvelous Becky from Doodlestop. Here's a better look:

They're little life rings and pies!!! With jazzy striped beads. Ahhh. It was so lovely (and eeeeeeeasy) working with her. Will deffo be doing it again once I've got my head around the next theme. :) One more time, that's Doodlestop.

And then the gifts. Obviously Hunstanston rock. That was a given. At the time of buying the rock I didn't know exactly how many I needed so I made a not-so-conservative guess and bought 30. Me and Chris had one each when we got home and then I used three in the seaside themed window. Which left exactly 25! Very pleasing. And I still have rock to eat. I hope you enjoy it. :)

And the last gift. This was the problem really. I bloody lost them. They were silly really, just little bits of funny seaside-tat-type-crabs but they made me smile and fitted into the last of my budget so I bought them. And now they're gone. If I find them again I'm going to have 30 seaside-tat-type-crabs to do something with. Luckily, I also overestimated with the gifts from the Dirty Rascal box so you've got some random bits from there. I'll talk a bit about that tomorrow when I launch that - otherwise you'll know too early. But that's why some of them don't make sense and why you're all missing your crabs. Haha. So organised!

And finally, you've got a bit of a ramble from me about Fibonacci and why I love him. Hopefully it makes sense! I had them all printed out organised on Wednesday evening and then Boyf read them and noticed a spelling mistake (I'm sure there are many more) so we completely reprinted them and then we realised that the numbers on the back had come out in black rather than blue and grey. So we spent thirty bloody minutes putting the right coloured squares around because we just couldn't justify reprinting.

So, I did try and take one of those photos where everything's all together but I am terrible. Here's what I got:

Whoever got this box - you're the only one with shredded paper - I bought some but not enough so I couldn't put it in every one. I'll do something with it, or donate it to Versace who took a real liking to it. :)

And really finally - I totes forgot to put the sneak peak of the new yarn in there! I AM A TIT! I will send them out or you can collect them from Monday (need to spend some time balling them up). GAH! Next time I will be organised!!! And it's lovely yarn - you're going to love it!!

And that's it folks - what do you think???? I hope you love the pattern as much as I do and the little gifts. It's been a lot of fun to put them together, but also a lot of stress. Haha.

Love Eleanor. xxx