And how about a little knitting content, while we’re at it
Wednesday December 19th 2007, 10:44 am
Filed under: "Wrapped in Comfort",Knit

So. Handmaiden’s new Camelspin yarn, wherein my fingers thought they’d died and gone to heaven–till I went back to Purlescence and discovered Handmaiden’s cashmere yarn. There are many grades of cashmere out there in the world, some of them apologetically asking for quotation marks around the word, but this is right up there with Lisa Souza’s handspun. Wow.

Silk yarns have a tendency to collapse and go limp and long as you wear the thing; this is 70 silk/30 baby camel, and I wasn’t quite sure how it would behave. It’s the perfect kind of yarn for one of my circular shawls, which hang in such a way that they stay on the body effortlessly and the stitch patterns stay open and beautiful. But even if I’d been willing to spring for two skeins, there was only the one in the shop. I didn’t know, then, if this would pull into a hopelessly long scarf, or, if I stopped it now, it would be hopelessly too short to be worn as a shawl stretched open across the back. Width or length. Which is it gonna be.

Only one way to get a good idea: do what I’ve told countless newbie laceknitters on the knitting lists to do. Rinse it gently in tepid water and lay it out on an old white something or other overnight, still on the needles. Not a true blocking, but it does show how the pattern comes out.

And then take a bad picture of it that doesn’t show the colors well so that Camelspin in Vintage colorwaythe intended recipient won’t really quite see it before Christmas.

Stitch pattern: the instructions to the main body of the Michelle pattern in my book, plus one plain stitch each side. Fairly quick, very easy, 45 stitches, fingering weight, size 5.5 mm needles. Merry Christmas!


9 Comments so far
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It sounds so luscious!
I just got a few of Barbara Walker’s Stitch dictionaries in the mail today, it will be a good winter for experimentation *happy sigh*

Comment by Diana Troldahl 12.19.07 @ 3:40 pm

Those are the best knitting books on the market: Barbara Walker for stitch patterns and good instructions, especially volumes 1 and 2, and Kaffe Fassett for playing with colors.

And then of course I have to put in a plug for my own book, for the best-fitting, most flattering lace shawl patterns out there, from mindless knitting/beginner-friendly projects on up. (Ahem. Not that I’m opinionated or anything.) But it really is what I looked for and couldn’t find, so I wrote it and knitted it myself.

Okay, end of commercial break, we now return you to your regular scheduled blogreading.

Comment by AlisonH 12.19.07 @ 4:16 pm

I drooled and drooled over the Camelspin when we were in Victoria at Beehive Wools, but I just couldn’t bring myself to pay for it. I settled instead for some Fleece Artist sock and Peter Rabbit, but one day I WILL have Camel!

And for those of you who haven’t seen Alison’s book, she is SO telling the truth!

Comment by Niki 12.19.07 @ 7:21 pm

Hi AlisonH- Thanks for the great record story (the other side?) on my blog. That cracked me up!

Comment by sophanne 12.19.07 @ 7:27 pm

For those who missed it: I mentioned a story that was in our local paper about a year ago about a teenager in San Jose whose music teacher lent him a prized jazz record album, with the teacher first making sure the kid’s parents still had a record player. The kid came back the next day complaining that the thing only played half the songs the cover claimed it did.

The teacher asked him, “Did you turn it OVER?”

“Over??!??”

Comment by AlisonH 12.19.07 @ 10:48 pm

Looks good to me! Sounds like divine yarn. enjoy!

Comment by Vicki 12.19.07 @ 11:34 pm

Beautiful scarf! I’m still hoping for your book next week….I should have just bought it. 🙂

Comment by Toni 12.20.07 @ 5:26 am

I second the opinion of your book, Alison.
I love the stories, and ponder over which one to try with what yarn, for which of my beloveds :-}
I heard you are doing a second book, when is it due out?

Comment by Diana Troldahl 12.20.07 @ 8:35 am

The colors from what I can tell are very Pretty. The stitch pattern looks like it would be very easy to do even for a novice lace knitter like myself. Hmmmmmm…Maybe I need to update my Christmas Wishlist 🙂

Comment by Danielle from SW Missouri 12.20.07 @ 11:41 am



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