Find Your Fade - A Nova Scotia Memory Shawl

Whenever I travel to a new place, my tradition is to buy a special skein of yarn to knit a pair of socks with from the local yarn store. I love seeing the different yarn stores and how they operate. 

When we were planning our trip to Nova Scotia, one of the first things I did was look up different yarn stores to visit. I quickly realized that there were so many great options and it would be impossible to choose just one. I also realized that buying yarn for socks from four different yarn stores was a little ridiculous - I already have too many pairs of hand-knit socks! I needed a larger project, one that could combine many different skeins and show them all off. I have always wanted to knit the find your fade shawl, designed by Andrea Mowry, but I could not justify buying 7 skeins of yarn for one shawl and my stash of leftovers is not coordinated enough to stash dive for it. This trip was the perfect excuse, I could visit many yarn stores, buy 1-2 skeins from each in the same colour theme and I would get a lovely shawl afterwards as my souvenir. 

With that justification in place, I started planning out the stores for each of the places we stayed. When our plane took off from Hamilton, Ontario I had the names of four stores that I wanted to go to, first was one in Wolfville called Wool and Tart. We landed in Halifax, picked up our rental car and started our hour long drive to Wolfville. We stopped for lunch at The Naked Crepe Bistro and our waitress came up to us and said, "I love your sweater!" - the way she said it indicated right away that she was a fellow knitter. She asked me if I had been to the wool and tart yet and I told her that was my next stop. Turns out she works there as well! Then she asked if I was going to be stopping at the farm too... I had no idea there was a farm as well. She insisted that I go there as well. 

Once our lunch was done we walked down the street to Wool and Tart. It is a cute little shop, with a few different brands of yarn. At first I was overwhelmed when picking my first skein out. So much pressure! This would determine the direction the rest of the shawl would go, I had to make sure to pick a skein that I loved but also kept my options open. Finally I settled on the Abril colourway by Malabrigo.

It's a beautiful deep purple with some dark blue in it as well, I figured this way I could either go with purple or blue for the other skeins to match with it. The person working at Wool and Tart also suggested we go to the farm, so we decided that if two local knitters recommended it, we should definitely go. With my first skein in hand we set off for Gaspereau Valley Fibres, just a quick drive away.

We pulled up to the farm and I instantly knew this place was something special. You could see the sheep running around, which is always a good bonus. We walked in the door and were welcomed by the lovely woman working there. We got chatting and it turns out she grew up in the same small (we're talking 500 ish people) town that my husband is from! What a small world. Looking around I saw lots of yarn that would have been amazing for a rustic sweater, I so wish I had enough room in my suitcase to bring some home with me... But I was on a mission. I needed to find something that went with the first skein. I spent a long time looking but I just wasn't finding anything that was quite right. Then the woman said that she had a new box of fingering weight yarn that hadn't been unloaded that and that I could try digging through it. It didn't take long when looking through the box to find something perfect - Fleece Artist in the colourway Violetta. This deep purple and black yarn would work wonderfully beside the Abril. Now I had a direction to go in - purple. 

We spent the night win Wolfville and the next morning we packed our things up again and headed to Cape Breton, specifically Baddeck. We were going to be driving the Cabot Trail and Baddeck was a good place to stay on the lower end of the drive. Baddeck is a lovely little tourist town, I can see why it is so popular for travel. Lots of cute shops and restaurants, great place to walk around and browse. We walked around Baddeck our first night there and what do you know, there was a fibre festival in town! I swear I did not know that it was going to be there! It was closed for the day when we arrived, but I made a note that we would have to stop by before we left. The Cabot Trail was lovely. I would definitely do that drive again. 

The day we left Baddeck was also the yarn shopping day. We stopped in at the Fibre festival. I was amazed, so many vendors, selling all sorts of hand made things ranging from fibre, yarns, quilts, handmade hats, scarves, mittens and woven textiles. 

The third skein for my shawl found me quickly, I saw it from across the aisle, sitting on a table, this lovely mix of light and medium purples and pink. This would be perfect, now I can transition from pink to purple to black. The skein was Celtic Raven Fibres in their Druid's Magic colourway. 

Immediately after the fibre festival, we went to Baadeck Yarns. This yarn store is one of my favourites. Full, full, full or beautiful yarns in all sorts of prices ranges for all sorts of projects. The owner was so friendly, and easy to talk to. She showed me a special section of Fleece Artist yarns that are exclusive to the store, one of them was perfect for my shawl. Pink Ice was the name of the colourway, it's grey, black and pink, this could go right next to the other fleece artist skein. While I was looking around the store some more, wishing I could buy more yarn for more projects I spotted their Lichen and Lace section. I have always wanted to try this yarn. I spotted the Sugar Plum colourway and knew it had to be in my shawl. It would be a great transition from the Celtic Raven Fibre skein. I left the store with two beautiful skeins. Only two more to find.

Our next stop on our trip was Halifax. One of the first things we did when we arrived was go to the yarn store. The shop was bright and had a great selection. I told the owner what I was making and she helped me find a beautiful grey skein that would work perfectly next to the pink ice skein. Only one more to find. 

Halifax was fun, we saw lots of museums and went on the Harbour Hopper tour, which was probably my favourite part. 

Our last destination was Lunenburg, another beautiful little town. Some day we will have to go back to Lunenburg, we went in October and something I didn't realize about Nova Scotia is that a lot of the province shuts down in September for the winter months. So unfortunately a lot of the stores were closed. Thankfully, the yarn store was not - people need yarn all year round, am I right? We stopped in at the Mariners Daughter to find my last skein needed for my shawl. This store was another favourite. It's small, but incredibly cute and full of potential projects. I easily found my final skein, Hedgehog fibres in the Cheeky colourway. This white with pops of pink and black was the perfect starting skein for my shawl, light and bright. I also picked up a few cute little notions that I could not possibly leave without.

Packing up to leave Nova Scotia, I squished my yarn purchases in my already full suitcase, excited to some day start my shawl. When I arrived at home the yarn got neatly placed on the shelf, waiting for the right time to cast on.

The right time ended up being on my birthday of this year, during a more intense part of the pandemic in my area. Birthdays are a little difficult for me, not one hundred percent sure why but I always end up feeling a little strange about another birthday coming around. With this one being a quarantine birthday, and realizing that my husband and I were not going to be able to travel any time soon and that our planned 5 year wedding anniversary trip to Iceland was not going to happen and a whole other long list of disappointments, I needed a distraction. I pulled out my seven skeins of yarn, wound them up and cast on my shawl.

At first I found the pattern difficult, I got confused by the lace and had to pay very close attention to what I was doing, which is unusual for me. Eventually though I got the hang of it, and before I knew it I was binding off the shawl.

It is massive, and needs to be wrapped around me a minimum of two times. It will be a beautiful statement piece during the fall and winter. Looking at how the yarns came together brings me so much joy and reminds me of our trip to Nova Scotia, and how badly I want to go back to that area of Canada again someday. I hope it won't be long.