Killorgin: Artesenal yarn in cable

I promised actual garments, and here is the first of several unreported projects.

 

 I have been a very long time posting this cardigan, because the construction is a very long story. I started it in October 2012, on a long car trip (to Winton, very outback, so lots and lots of passenger time). Killorgin is gorgeous a top down construction from Carol Feller's Contemporary Irish Knits.

You can see from its appearance on the cover that it is a covet worthy cover project. I was really keen to knit it, but wanting it to be worn a lot, had to think carefully about my yarn choice for our relatively warm climate.

I picked a fabulous Queensland winter weight yarn, Aslan trends Artesenal, which has a wonderful tweedy look, whilst also containing enough cotton to make it suitable for the subtropical-excuse-for-winter cardi. Its other fibre is Alpaca. I had not used it before for a close knit cable pattern, so was interested to see how it behaved in comparison to a wool blend.

 

 My tension swatch worked out perfectly, so I thought I was good to go, and gleefully knit down to the waist shaping, then tried it on. Unfortunately, the size I made placed the central spaces of the largest cable "circle" directly over each bust apex. Having sufficient bust to feel somewhat self conscious about this I ripped out a good 20 cm, of the whole darned front AND back, and knit a bit more with some less bullseye placement of the cables. If I hadn't been in the outback at the time with no alternative knitting project and no yarn shops in 1000km in any direction, I think I would have given up at this point.Frogging this much is very discouraging. By the time we had returned home, I was back to the waist again, then discovered a horrible cable error (of mine) in the middle of the back, which involved ripping back 20 cm again, as it was too complicated an error (and cable) for a local fix.

 Guess what, other projects took over.

 It languished about until October last year, when I got it out to finish for a trip to New Zealand. I thought a nice knit jacket would be a bit smarter than polar fleece for lolling about in National Parks. I finished it off with a few minor modifications ( doubled neck for robustness, and grosgrain ribbon as backing for the zip insertion).

 It looked absolutely terrific until I had been wearing it for 2 days, when it assumed gorilla arm proportions and mysteriously elongated in the body by about 10 cm.  In wear, the yarn was too relaxed to keep the tension gauge properly. I was not happy.

 However, my younger daughter adopted the cardigan for a stretchy grunge look -not what I quite had in mind (fitted smart jacket was more my idea) but at least it is being worn.

 I love the pattern (aside from the cable space placement) and I love the yarn, but they are not a good combination. If I can work up the courage, I will be trying this again in a yarn with high proportion of wool, just like the designer intended ;). Artesenal is much better in more relaxed style projects.

Crochet Blanket

Last year, a lovely family from South Australia visited the shop. Leesa was buying her birthday present, supplies to work on her new crochet hobby whilst on holiday.
She picked out a gorgeous combination of yarns - Artesenal, baby bamboo, and glaciar del cielo.
Leesa has kindly sent me a photograph of her gorgeous crochet blanket. I am always thrilled to see how projects turn out, particularly when I am able to work with someone to find alternative yarns for a pattern (also known as playing with yarn, which is just about my favourite thing). I love how the colours and different patterned squares work together in Leesa's blanket.

I am sure this will be wonderful to snuggle under as the weather gets colder.

More Spider Stitch Scarf

We are seeing quite a few of these quick and gorgeous scarves coming into the shop. This one is by Sue, from one skein of Aslan Trends Artesenal in colour 36. The official name for this colour is "Celery" but Sue has renamed it "Avocado" as a more suitable vegetable/fruit for Queensland. I think it looks a bit like the shade of the flesh of a Reed avocado - What do you think? Sue plans to sew some beads in different natural timbers to the ends of this scarf, and promises to bring it in to show us once it is embellished. I am really enjoying all the variations our knitters develop from this simple pattern.

 

I am also waiting to see the final version of a stole/scarf made using this pattern in the bulky weight Jo Sharp Silkroad Ultra. Jessica is making one for her sister to wear in the snow during a trip to the USA this Christmas. So now the Monday night knit group is also an international designer :).