Saturday, January 22, 2011

Braving the 2ply

My daughter's Year 1 teacher retired in the middle of last year.
I wanted to give her a nice thank you present as she'd been wonderful for my daughter and we really missed her.
The year before I made her a project bag that had cats on the outside and was purple on the inside (she collects cats and purple is her favourite colour). This year I wanted it to be an extra little bit special so I decided I'd make a shawl.

I hunted for about 2 weeks for just the right pattern. I didn't want to do a triangle shawl as I felt they were a bit 'granny' like and didn't want her to feel that was the message I was sending seeing as she'd just retired. I wanted a shawl that she could wear out that was almost scarf like but not really, for when she just needed something round her neck/shoulders.

In the end I settled on Annis. The next hard part was the yarn.
I ordered some Classic Elite Silky Alpaca in Plum. 2ply!!!! yikes.
Anyway I started.
This pattern also has nupps in it. These are little bumpy things in the pattern. I have heard they are a knitter's nightmare, but I found a tutorial on doing them with a crochet hook. Nupps - not a problem.

So in the end I finished and blocked it in time to give it to the teacher.
I'm not sure if she liked it, she didn't open it in front of me, but she is craft minded herself so I'm sure she appreciated it. (I'll try and find out this year if she liked it, but DD is changing schools so it won't be easy!)

Anyway, here are some photos. I'd happily make this pattern again. I think I might try in some yarn I've hand dyed.







Once blocked.




I love it in 2ply but I'm not sure I could knit it again. The yarn was definitely gorgeous.



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