The Virus Shawl gets an outing

Remember the Virus Shawl? Finished, washed and blocked and just needed some good photos so I could put it on Folksy?
Well, today turned out to be a beautiful sunny day, so I trotted off to Hilliers for a bit of a walk and view the magnolias which are all in flower and looking their best (more of them another day - it will take me a while to sort through the hundreds of photos I took!!). As I was going out the door, it occurred to methat it might be the perfect opportunity for a photo shoot! The shawl folds up surprisingly small and fitted in my rucksack nicely - although it tried to escape when I stopped for lunch!

After finishing my picnic, I lay it this way and that on the bench in the sunshine - it was pretty windy though and kept blowing off! While I was arranging it a lady stopped to chat. She was also a crocheter and was wearing a gorgeous granny stripe cardigan and we had a lovely chat about crochet that I would never have expected to have at Hilliers!
(I realised afterwards that Sandra of Cherry Heart has been making that same cardigan recently - I hope it wasn't her and I didn't recognise her!! If it was, I do apologise...)

Anyway, here it is spread across the back of a bench in the Winter Garden.

Then I tried it draped over the arm.

Next I hung it on a bush!

Then I found a handy piece of string stretched between two trees. Like you do.

 I tried it hung on a branch with primroses underneath and heather in the background.

Finally, I tried another branch. This one was a bit more public though - in the magnolia garden where everyone was headed today... I did get some strange looks! 

Confident I had at least one usable shot, I headed home.  I decided to stop off in Romsey on my way for a quick bit of shopping and decided to show it to the lady in the shop where I bought the wool (King Cole Riot DK in Rainbow). She recognised the pattern straight off and was very envious that I'd made it and asked lots of questions about the pattern. We chatted about this and that, discovering that we read some of the same blogs even! 

I then told her I actually had it with me as I'd been taking photos so I could advertise the shawl for sale - and before I knew it she'd bought it!! I wasn't expecting that! 

Whilst I'm really pleased to have sold it - especially to someone so nice - I was rather hoping it might give me my first Folksy sale.... Maybe I'll make another - but not in that exact wool as I really didn't enjoy working with it, even thought it's supersoft when washed and an amazing colour.

But it won't be my next project. You know what the next new project will be - the Baby Blanket, made using James Brett Supreme soft & Gentle baby DK. Yes - the wool has arrived in the shop already!!!!

I have a couple of photos of it being unpacked at the shop but they're on my phone, so I'll pop back later with them and some shots of my colour choices.

Enjoy the sunshine again today!! T xXx