Tuesday 8 September 2015

Tickles my fancy

My mom is a stylish woman.  Little old lady describes me far more than it does her.  And she has shopping sense.  She can go out and find good things everywhere.  (I think shopping is her hobby.)  She went out a couple weeks ago and found an absolutely stunning dress and she wanted a little bolero to go with it.

She told me this when I met them for a few days in Enderby BC right before the yarn experience that is A Twist of Yarn.  I picked up some yarn right there and then.  Seldom is there an opportunity to do something like this for mom.  She is a decisive shopper.  The only reason I get a chance is that she hasn't been able to find anything she likes in the right size.  


The yarn is Hempton from Hemp for Knitting.  Oh.  My.  Gosh.

I love how ordinary cotton feels.  I love how linen feels.  But this is really quite unique and wonderful.  It slips through your hands.  It really does slip.  It is lusturous and you just don't expect that in a yarn from a plant fibre.  This blend?   It is.  The blend of hemp, cotton and modal is just bang on for all the qualities that anybody would want to knit for against the skin wear.  I am looking forward to working with it.


 
One for colour, one to see the texture.  Mom says just a little more airy, so I will redo the swatch one size needle up.  I might make a small change too, to a texture pattern I saw on a top I have long admired.  Summer Trilogy, Part II.  If you go to the second from last photo, you get a great closeup of the texture pattern used.  It's not quite as busy as the two row seed stitch I tried above and I think it would show off the really lovely sheen of this great yarn just a little better.

With moms dress, and this yarn, if it was me I was making the bolero for, I would go with something like this design for the way the yarn could drape.  Mom has a different vision and a more trim silhouette in mind. She knows the way things lay across her bosom better than I, and she far prefers the definition of a set in sleeve.  What she has chosen is going to be great.  The exact pattern she chose is not really available to me.  I had it.  I honestly had that magazine issue, but it was part of the great weeding and did not make the trip to my wee house.  It is so similar to this one though, that I have complete confidence that I can make the small changes she wants.


I will dispense with the crocheted edging which is featured here and will go with something much simpler and trimmer but it is fundamentally this pattern.

I have to laugh.  We communicated about the project on facebook.  We pinned the project gallery from Ravelry on Pintrest.  We sent pictures by SMS.  We are using a lot of new technology to talk about it.  What we have not done so far is talk about it on the phone or discuss it in person!  All this technology to make a hand knit.

This confluence of technologies and hand work tickles my fancy and that is how it's getting recorded on Raverly for posterity.


1 comment:

Brendaknits said...

What a great project for you. So meaningful.