Have you checked it out yet? If not, click around and see how it looks. I love the fresh look! There are a few things still to be worked out, with connections made and so on, but I’ll work through them with help from Janelle of Design Revolution, and at the same time, would so very much appreciate any feedback or concerns or suggestions from you.
To celebrate (and to find out if I could do it!) I put up a new free pattern for a cute baby blanket
that you can download. And while I’m at it, I might as well apologize for the truly terrible photos for the scarves that are on the page. It’s not Janelle’s fault, that’s what she had to work with! It has inspired me to re-yarn our Roman Stripe scarf and just re-do the whole pattern. It’s one of my favorite stitch patterns and I haven’t made one in years. I just ordered a new Noro yarn called Shinryoku that might work beautifully. (New Fine Donegal, Moonshine, and Tenzing are also coming for fall, along with a couple of other new yarns that I think you’ll love.)
I wanted to show you my finished Jeweled Cowl, made from Plymouth’s new Linaza (alpaca, linen, and Tencel). I love the way it came out. The pattern calls for lace-weight, but Linaza is fingering-weight which made it easier to knit. It also called for size 8/0 beads but I used bigger size 6/0 beads – also a little easier to handle. Love the feel of yarn, soft alpaca against your neck, a little bit of crispness from the linen, and great drape from the Tencel, quite nice for a cowl.
I had quite a bit left from the skein and from my 40-gram package of beads, but the cowl was big enough to wrap at least twice and probably 3 times around your neck, so no sense overdoing it! Lovely free pattern on Ravelry, many thanks to the designer.
Another new cowl that I had been waiting to knit since the yarn for it came in weeks ago is this fun piece:
The lovely yarns are new from Plymouth. Arequipa Worsted is big generous ball of superwash merino and mulberry silk, and Arequipa Fur is a blend of baby alpaca and merino (hand-washable only). Both are made in Peru and come in lovely neutral shades:
I would be happy to have one in any shade. The tuck stitch is fun to do and makes a nice fabric on either side. You determine which is the right side when you join into a circle and pick up for the fur border. I went for the smooth side:
as is my wont, but Plymouth shows it with the bumpy side out, also very nice:
Don’t forget that our Braidsmaid class starts in just a couple of weeks. This is a perfect summer project: Not too big, not heavy, just interesting enough to keep you from dozing off and intuitive enough that you don’t have to fret all the time. Love, love, love the projects on Ravelry! Here are just a few:
Love the swoop of the cable…
(OMG, intarsia!)
How lovely is this photo? Sigh.
By the way, you can register for a class on-line now, but not yet pay for it. When you register, we’ll get an email and contact you for payment.
Let me know what you think of the new site – see you soon!
