Fractals and Falling Leaves

I was talking to some friends on Ravelry this week about fractal spinning and my blog post about this technique, when realized that I should update you on how my fractally spun yarn looks knitted up! I ended up giving the first skein in the aforementioned post to my friend Stephanie, who made it into this beautiful shawlette:

Knitted up, you can really see the effect of fractal spinning: the general color progression from yellow to orange to blue overlaid with shorter versions of this color sequence. I love how the shape of her shawl really highlights the color effects.

While Stephanie's handspun shawl is beautiful, I'm totally in love with her autumnal version of this shawl made out of MadelineTosh Tosh Sock. Not only is the color choice perfect for the pattern but you can really see how all of the beautiful leaves fit together into an interesting design.

I'm going to brag about Stephanie a bit and tell you that she designed this shawl, which is called 'Fall of Leaves', and has shared the pattern for free on Ravelry! For someone who recently started writing patterns, she is very talented. Plus, I think it's very generous of her to post the pattern for free since I know she put a lot of time and effort into this design.

I'm lucky to have a knitting friend like Stephanie. I always enjoy our tea-and-knitting dates with our mutual friend C, and I know I'm going to miss her when she moves away from Madison this summer.

All photos in this post are courtesy of my very talented friend Stephanie (eccentrica on Ravelry).