Presenting (Finally) the Alpine Scarf...

... after a truamatic start to this lace project (never have I experienced so much trouble with a lace pattern in all my life) due to my inability to read a lace chart properly!

Here is what's left of my cone of French 4ply silk from Colourmart that Mum purchased last year for me to knit this shawl as a 70th birthday gift for her cousin's wife next week (April 17th).

The silk felt quite rough whilst knitting after a couple of hours I could feel were the yarn had been running through my fingers however, after washing it has become softer and drapier....

I purchased the cone as 150g of yarn so thought the cone weighed 44g it would appear that I actually got 154g of yarn as when I have wound the remainder off I found I have 4g left; I could have done another 2 repeats of the leaft motif!!! I think not ;o)

Here she is blocking as you can see I have done 6 repeats of the centre motif rather than the stated 4 to make it wider and have worked an extra 10 repeats of the motif, working 47 instead of 37 to make it longer so it is more shawl like than scarf like.....

If anyone wants to do 6 repeats of the centre motif here are the stitch counts I used....

• Cast on 157 sts
• After the 1st 8 gt-st rows, knit your 25 border sts at each side as stated, then knit 107 in the centre
• When it comes to increasing on row 8 of the gt-st (before starting the centre motifs) increase 5 sts evenly across the centre 107 sts
  

You will then be knitting:
6 gt-st / 19 diamond border / 6 repeats of centre motif / 19 diamond border / 6 gt-st

Below are close ups of the patterns....

and finally the final article a modest but respectible 25" x 70" :o)

Is it...

... S.E.X if I don't buy it?

This is 100% pure French silk in Silver Grey (2/28NM) from Colourmart When it grows up it's hopefully going to be the Alpine Lace Scarf from VLT; well actually I'm going to put a few more repeats of the centre motif in to make it wider to make it more of a stole... It will be a 70th birthday present from my Mum to her cousins wife next April (so I have plenty of time) so in effect Mum bought the yarn so is it really S.E.X, That's the question.???

I can't tell you much about it at the moment as I'm only just starting to swatch with it. I can tell you however, it's a 4ply yarn (a 2 & 2) so there are two distinct strands when knitting.... which doesn't bother me as I've been knitting holding two yarns together for a few projects. It feels a bit harsh at first, but after a few rows of stocking stitch the fabric softens up and I can see it being quite drapey and even more so after washing and blocking.....

I'm using 2.5mm needles and so far I like the result :o)

O.K. confession time.... I sent a link to a friend to show her the yarn and Colourmart had just had a new delivery of 1/20NM 100% Cashmere and this colour was there just glaring at me and begging me to buy it....

It's just such a beautiful shade of green it's called "Asparagus"... I gave it thought as to what I could use it for I didn't just want to buy it for the sake of buying it and then I'd remembered I'd subconciously been persuaded to pre-order the "Princess Shawl" pattern from Heirloom Knitting. Sharon Miller gives a couple of suggestions for yarn on her site and the Merino is just a little thinner (about 4 metres per gram) than the cashmere, so I bought it :o))))

I have to say I'm impressed with Colourmart's photography as the yarn is true to the colour on their website.....

So in the end I did succumb to a little S.E.X ;o)