I’ve got to admit, I’m pretty precious about yarn. Other than the odd experiment, I have to love it to buy it. Then when I do, it either jumps straight onto my needles or it waits in my stash for ages until I find a project that it belongs in.

I’m most slow to use handdyed skeins. They aren’t just yarn, they are someone else’s art. It’s no different than hanging a picture on your wall. I like to take them out and admire them while they wait in my stash and I savour every stitch when I’m knitting them.

Recently I discovered that I feel much of the same with my own handspun. I buy my fibre from local producers and dyers so each skein I spin up features the work of people I’ve come to know and respect for the love they put into growing/sourcing/dyeing their fibre, and when you add the time and care I put into a spin, it’s little wonder they become quite precious to me.

Maybe we all feel that a little and that’s why so many of us hoard our precious yarns instead of using them. This design came about when I decided to knit some of my handspun yarn to enjoy the yarn and maybe inspire some of you my fellow yarn lovers to use your special skeins too.

Afterparty is an asymmetrical triangle shawl with stripes of garter stitch separated by sections of lace. It is designed for up to 200g of fingering weight yarn broken up into either 2 or 3 colours.

You will need 100g for the main colour which can be any dye style including speckled, variegated, gradient, or solid and 100g for the lace sections which are best done using a semi-solid/solid coloured yarn in either one colour (100g) or 2 colours (50g each).

The Afterparty pattern includes 2 versions. Version A (featured) ends in lace which is completed with a picot edge, and Version B has a straight garter edge (and is a little larger than version A - see last pics).

All instructions are written and charted. A handy tick-sheet showing stitch counts, pattern placement, and colour changes is also provided to help you keep track of your work.

Yarn
Version A:
C1 (MAIN - COLOURED): 75g of White Gum Wool Ethical Superfine Merino 4ply which is 472m/516yd per 100g (I used hand-spun yarn from White Gum Wool Ethical Superfine Merino Sliver, hand-dyed by Pickle & Co Fibres in col. Trish).
C2 (CONTRAST - NATURAL): 50g of White Gum Wool Ethical Superfine Merino 4ply which is 472m/516yd per 100g (I used col. Natural).

Version B: The maximum you should allow is 100g, 50g, and 50g for C1, C2, and C3 respectively. You will likely have some C2 and C3 left over.

Needles & Notions
Pair of 4mm (US 6) & 4.5mm (US 7) needles. I like to use an 80cm circular needle set but straight are fine also. The larger needles are for the cast off only. 1 stitch marker (optional).

Tension/Gauge
18 sts x 46 rows to 10cm (4”) over garter stitch after blocking on 4mm (US 6) needles.

Finished Measurements
Version A: 44cm (17.5”) deep at centre x 215cm (84.5”) wide along top edge x 115cm (45.25”) along cast off edge (blocked).
Version B: please see Raverly projects for details using other yarns.

Many thanks to Pickle and Co Fibres, White Gum Wool, and my wonderful testers sallyravels pollywaffle iaks200 meaperfect Mellyboo