Well, frog that!
This little beauty started life as Clapotis, but as many of you know, Clapotis really takes more than three skeins of Lion and Lamb--it's more like five. What I ended up with with three skeins was a very wide and short scarf. Not that fabulous wrap that drapes so beautifully on the Knitty model. At $20-$30+ per skein there was no way I was going to buy more than three skeins, so I frogged that.
I reused the yarn and made what you see here, Midwest Moonlight from Scarf Style. (The i-cord fringe was my own addition.) The pattern is insanely easy and a nice break from this year's magnum opus, Fulmar.
Now there's more bad news, the Lion and Lamb runs like an S.O.B. I was never able to get the rinse water to run clear. After soaking and rinsing the scarf for an entire day, and I mean from early in the morning to late at night, the best I was able to manage was a medium pink rinse water. The colors that absolutely glowed as I knit the scarf up turns out to have been just loose dye pigment. The colors are still lovely, but not $20-$30+ worth of lovely. Furthermore, the yarn is fairly delicate in composition. It's a single ply and does not hold up well to a lot of handling. The glorious texture and sheen wasn't nearly as glorious after all of the rinses.
How disappointing! This was one expensive little lesson.
Niagra Falls...*
Slowly I knit, stitch by stitch, inch by inch...
I've finished another sleeve on Fulmar. Now all I have to do is knit the back, knit the button band, sew it together, and knit the collar. Gad! Fulmar is quite an endeavor, mostly because it is knit in DK/sport weight yarn. I'm using a merino yarn I bought from The Wool Company . It's discontinued, which is a shame since it's a pretty yarn and very soft.
*from a schtick in a Three Stooges movie, "Gents Without Cents", which I have unfortunately committed to memory.
Herself...
Alice Starmore; aka Herself, is a brilliant knitwear designer. Her out of print knitting books sell for outrageous prices on ebay, Amazon.com, Half.com, etc. I can't believe people pay such prices but I digress...
Many of her patterns have appeared in knitting magazines as well (for a lot less money). For example,
- Maidenhair cardigan appears in Interweave Knits, Fall 1997
- Marina is in a book entitled Woolcraft (This Morning), Liz Bloor (ed.) Personally, this is my favorite of her fairisle patterns. The colors are spectacular. Check out the Gallery pages on the Knitting Beyond the Hebrides website to see some pieces knit by members.
- Thoroughbred is in Vogue Knitting International, Fall 1989
- a no-name pattern) is in Vogue International Knitting, Fall 1994
- Mara (the vest version) is in Workbasket Magazine February-March 1992
There are more, this list is just a start. So save your money folks!!! Her daughter, Jade Starmore, has a piece in Interweave Knits as well:
- Beadwork in Interweave Knits Winter 99/00
Currently, the Beadwork issue is selling for obscene prices as well due to a Knit Along currently underway. It's a nice pattern, but, well it's just not
that nice.
Fulmar-Sort Of
I've been knitting Fulmar from Alice Starmore's Aran Knitting for what seems like forever. I actually started in January 2006, so it hasn't really been that long. I call it Fulmar-Sort Of because I've made quite a few modifications to the pattern.
- the sleeves are now a modified drop-shoulder rather than a straight drop-shoulder. I used Jenna Wilson's articles in Knitty on adding sleeves to a vest to modify the sleeve decreases and arm scythe. (thanks Auntie!)
- I've adapted it to a cardigan and rearranged the stitch patterns on the front to accommodate a button band. I plan on knitting the button band separately for ease of knitting and, hopefully, the seam will provide added strength to the opening.
- lastly I reworked the ribbing on the body to encorporate the body pattern into the ribbing. I also knit the ribbing on the same size needles as the body so that the sweater is more of a "tunic-style" rather than a typical pullover.
The rest I'll make up as I go along. Not exactly the textbook method for designing/redesigning knitwear...I sure hope this all comes together in the end ;->
