Issue 235 – Woodland Shawlette Although our winter here in New England was a mild one, the arrival of spring, with its warmer sunshine and longer days, is welcome. It will still be a month or two with frost at night, but spring has sprung! To keep shoulders warm until the furnace stops running, this triangular shawl designed by Brenda Lavell in Woodland, is the perfect choice. Woodland, with an unusual fiber content of 65% wool, 35% nettles, can't be matched for stitch definition. Nettles are bast fibers like linen and hemp, with long fibers from the stem of the plant that are used for spinning. (Other plant fibers such as cotton, sisal, and raffia are made from the leaf or fruit of the plant.) Unlike cotton, nettles can be grown easily, without watering and pesticides, in almost any soil. New advances in the retting process - extracting the fibers from the stem of plant - make nettles environmentally-friendly and a fiber we will be seeing more of in the future. Happy first day of Spring! Visit the Phydeaux Designs website • View Phydeaux's designs on Ravelry   (file size: 626 KB; published March 20, 2012) If you have difficulty with the PDF, try these: page 1 – page 2
The Yarn:	Woodland 65% Wool & 35% Nettles Woodland, part of our Verde Collection of eco-conscious yarns, is a combination of wool and environmentally-friendly nettles. Each of these fibers takes the dye differently, giving both the neutral and vibrant colors of Woodland a heathered look.
Also from Classic Elite Yarns Four designs from our Fall pattern booklet Cropland are available as pdf downloads or in printed booklet form. Click the images to visit shop.classiceliteyarns.com to buy the booklet from a local yarn store, or to instantly download the pdf.
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