FO: ‘Enid’

Enid is finally off the needles, ends woven in and blocked! She was a WIP for a while… Being a 4-ply knit from the bottom-up it did take a while to get through the swathe of chocolate brown stockinette in-the-round and a couple of other projects managed to sneak in along the way! But, she is here and I think she is a success!

I don’t think this one is likely to get worn ‘properly’ for a while yet though- that 100% Alpaca is pretty warm and being mid-August – even in the UK – it’s not really Alpaca weather! Even this quick photo shoot was a tad uncomfortable!

But the fit is good and I *love* the colours! There was lots of deliberation and a definite pause before I started on the yoke while I spent some time with various combinations! It’s so *hard* to make decisions when you can have (almost) anything you want!

To be honest, the stranded colour work could have looser floats – it seems no matter how long/loose I think I am leaving them they are always just slightly too tight and the result is a yoke that has a very slight puckered look to it in places. I’m prepared to live with that though – and as the yarn is Alpaca it has a halo that almost lends itself to that slightly textured effect…

I decided to leave the neck and bottom to roll naturally rather than hem as per the pattern. I like the effect at the neck better than the turned and stitched option which I tried first. I might hem the bottom edge at some point once I’ve got a feel for how it sits ‘in action’.

You can see all the yarn details here (Rav link) but it’s all Artesano Alpaca 4 ply which was wonderful to work with and comes in the most wonderful shades…

double thick mittens by Adrian Bizilia

Back in January 2009 I cast on for a pair of mittens from the book The Knitter’s book of Yarn. After huge deliberation and consideration of the wonderful range of colours available I ordered 3 beautiful skeins of Hebridean 2-ply as per the pattern specifications. I tackled the picot edge, the braid and all of the colourwork section on mitten # 1 before the grim truth could be ignored no longer… the mitten was too narrow. I have quite big hands which are also quite ‘square’ and there was just no way that this slender mitt was going to be comfortable forced onto my ‘shovel-for-a-hand’! So I frogged.

Summer came and went and we hit winter 2009/10. One of the coldest, snowiest, longest winters we’ve experienced for some while. So, I cast on again. Having grown significantly in confidence knitting stranded colour work since last winter my lack of inner tension made for more relaxed, looser knitting tension and after a few rows of the colour work section I felt confident that this attempt would be fine. And indeed it was…

These are gorgeous mittens! Ready just in time for the ice and snow to melt away and for us to feel those first few warming rays of spring sunshine… Oh well! We have certainly got a few more chilly weeks ahead of us and they will be ready and waiting for the first sign of frost next winter!

The yarn was beautiful to work with and has fuelled a real interest in some of our less glamorous, shall we say more ‘rustic’ sheep breeds. Especially those that inhabit the chilly isles off the far north coast of Scotland. While working this Hebridean 2 ply is tough, even rough, on the hands but has wonderful body and a great twist that sets the patterns beautifully. Once washed and blocked it blooms and becomes a cushion of warmth with the faintest fuzzy halo. The colours are intense and all from nature. It’s easy to imagine garmets made from this yarn being worn in a windswept landsacpe of heathers and evergreens…

All Ravelled here