Wednesday 25 August 2010

Montego Bay

August 2010

Rowan Purelife Revive is a yarn made out of recycled clothes, which is such an intriguing idea, I jumped at the first opportunity to try it. My sister in law's birthday, as it turns out.

Being predominantly composed of silk and cotton, it's a definite summer yarn with a great weight and drape to it. This pale brown colourway is shot through with strands of all sort of unexpected colours - turquoise, black, navy blue and dark red - which made it a joy to knit with.
I love the end result too. When I cast on for this project, inspired by various lovely version on ravelry, I wasn't really feeling it at first, and I wondered if I'd just been seduced by good photography. I'm glad I persevered, though - once it got long enough to wrap around my neck as I knit (I'm not the only one who does that, am I?) I started to realise how pretty it was.

Three skeins gave me a scarf about 5" shorter than the pattern intended (it was written for Handmaiden Fine Yarn Sea Silk), but long enough by my standards. 35 stitches across seemed to make a sensible width. As it came so close to the wire I was very glad I cut the strands to make both sets of tassels from the beginning of the third skein before joining it in and finishing off the scarf. I only had a yard or so left over.

The scarf also rolls in on itself to make a tube, as the pattern itself warns you. There's no point fighting it, and it's by no means a serious issue, but it was nice to be forewarned.

Pattern: Montego Bay by Amy R. Singer from Interweave Knits Summer 2007
Yarn: Rowan Purelife Revive
Amount: 3 skeins
Colourway: 462 Basalt
Needles: 4.00mm
Size: One size
On ravelry: here

Sunday 15 August 2010

Cricket Sweater

August 2010

This is my Dad's Christmas present, and I can't remember the last time I felt so proud of one of my FOs. Primarily because it was so time consuming, but in the end I think the hard work paid off.

If you've a tendency to rush finishing like I do, it's great to make something for someone else now and then, because it forces you to be extra neat and not fudge bits, which is great discipline.

I used Sublime Organic Merino Wool dk for this, rather than the recommended Rowan Baby Alpaca dk, since the Sublime was on sale having been discontinued. I absolutely loved working with it, and I really wish I could justify buying another bagful. It's extremely soft everso pretty.

I did twist one of my cables back to front, but decided to leave it as it was, because it was on the back section, and it struck me as a rather nice way to prove this was hand made. I did something similar when I made a Central Park Hoodie for myself, so it's almost traditional now.

Pattern: Cricket Sweater by Wendy Baker from Rowan Knits for Him
Yarn: Sublime Organic Merino Wool dk (discontinued)
Amount: 15 skeins (MC) / 2 skeins (CC)
Colourway: 113 Twine (MC) / 118 Sailcloth (CC)
Needles: 3.00mm and 3.25mm
Size: 40"
On ravelry: here