This has been a paltry month for finishing thing at ATU, but over 2 cups of strong Lady Grey, I managed to create this pile of ends.
because the man-size raglan is complete. It's taken ... A G E S !!! I've taken indoor and outdoor photos to illustrate the difference that natural lighting can make. First, the indoor photos.
Here's a close-up of the sleeve edging and the pattern stitch. I think that using sock yarn on the edges will give it a much better wear, but it's hard to sew it in without a bit of the yarn poking through.
Then, racing outside to capture the last of the rays of sunlight....
I love the crispness of autumn. There is a lot of colour in the garden.
I owe some special thanks to Rowanette Sam, for finding this pattern for me. I really wanted to knit something in 4 ply and had a hard time finding the right pattern, but she came through and found thing in JL's.
OK, now, I'm going to race and try to finish something else before October ends and the tricker treaters come demanding their candy. When I first came to London, I was regularly visited by children, escorted by parents, lurking behind trees and shrubs. In the past few years, there has only been a trickle. It seems a bit sad, that children don't come out in their costumes. What does it say about the society that we live in, when we can't trust our neighbours.
Well, actually, I don't have too much time on my hands, but time seems to evaporate these days. Thank goodness for daylights savings. I get an extra hour this weekend :-).
So, first, I've worked on a few buttons. Do any of these pass mustard? You can say NO and I'll try again. My feelings won't be hurt.
Then, I decided quite recently, that I was going to rewrite the Birch pattern. Mostly because I keep reading about the frustration of casting on 299 odd stitches. The version that I'm working will require you to cast on about 3 stitches and you'll be knitting from neck down as well. The big draw-back is that you're likely to end up with a very short shawl onceyou get bored.
I'll be test swatching it now to make sure all the stitches and charts are right and that it comes out triangular. I like the jiggery pokery of trying to make the math work, but the real judge is the swatch. Here's one that I did earlier... and no the numbers didn't work exactly, but it was close.
Secrets
I tried really hard to stay a secret pal, but my recpient knew who I was. Larissa's the most gracious recipient. I really need to write a long thank you letter for Secret Pal leader Heidi for all her hard work. First, for having Valentina spoil me (did Heidi know how much we have in common) and second for picking such a nice victim for me.
..and finally when I was away, Amelia brought me a little present courtesy of the lovely Kristine. It's really gorgeous.
(Alpaca Woman, look away now !)
I get things done by limiting myself to 'set-tasks'. Otherwise, it's far too easy to become absorbed and never get anything done.
This weekend, I set myself the following tasks:
1. finish off knitting raglan. .. and guess what? By Sunday night, I was ready to block and sew. It looks like the husband might actually get a sweater before November rolls around. The operative word is 'might'. Since it's not finished yet and there are a lot of ends to sew. Finishing isn't one of my favorite tasks but after all the hours working on this, I don't want to screw it up too much by taking shortcuts.
2. Get out and get some fresh air. So I did. I went in search of a present for one of my friend's birthday. I went to Cath Kidston in Chelsea but they didn't have what I wanted. It was pouring rain, the trains were not cooperating either, so I took myself over to another shop that I knew had Cath Kidston goodies and an added bonus was .. there was a yarn shop not far away. So lookie what I got.
None of the yarns tempted so at least I got some books. Mind you, it's not like I needed any new books, but I always feel a strong need to support my LYS.
3. Re-work ATU. I'll work on a button, maybe this weekend. If I make a reasonable size button, the text becomes unread-able... so what's a girl to do but ponder this a bit more. I was never really happy with the old layout, but I just wasn't sure what I wanted. Now that I have a blue mottled background, I'll have to take a lot more photos on this tablecloth :-)
4. I also managed to go see my in-laws (I'm lucky, because I have great in-laws)
5. I came home from Sunday lunch and I de-s-p-a-m-m-e-d my comments. Am I paranoid or do those s-p-a-m-b-o-t-s seem more aggressive than usual? Comments on almost every post (and sometimes more than one on the same posts) were hit. Each comment was also posted about 5 minutes apart. I've decided to closed some of my comments to prevent this. They're driving me bananas, but I will find a way to win. I don't like losing!
6. I also found a few new blogs, that are very worth following. First, there's MeMoiJa, the home of my secret Pal, Valentina. She was in cahoots with Kay to surprise me and was even going to show up at the Afghan Sewing Bee, just to meet me without tell me. Valentina gave me but a few clues and I ended up spending hours trolling through blogs until I found her last week. (Note, I did not limit my time to do this, as this is something that would keep me awake through the night). Then there's another new blogger, Knitting and Howe!. Phyllis kindly gave up for home for the Sewing Bee and I'm sure that she is still finding bits of peach cobbler, along with bits of yarn and tapestry needles in her couch. So stop by and visit these great ladies.
Now, I'm going to go and try and finish this raglan off (Just kidding, I'll be going off to find my pillow now). November is just around the corner. All this dashing about, no wonder, I'm breathless!
Slowly but surely the raglan is growing. I'm finally up to the decreases on the body. I defintely do more stitches per minute on smaller gauge items but it just takes forever to knit up a ball of yarn.
Of course, getting close to finishing something this big means I get to start something else soon. Yeah, I'm a bad girl but I'm sure the BAD girls have all the fun.
A little TV knitting, requires minimun concentration and is a lot more fun than acres of stocking stitch
As for the denim knit-along hosted by Eva and me? It's still in progress, albeit a bit slowly.
Who told me that denim knits so fast that it practically knits itself? LIAR!
I'm starting to have doubts about the width of my bomber. I'm going to have to check this carefully since it looks a bit too narrow, or maybe because I'm a bit too wide. I knew I ate too many of these when I was on holiday.
In some parts of Austria, a meal is only a snack, unless you have dumplings!
Isn't he just adorable? The restaurant refused to sell him to me. He's made from the burlap sacks that were used to transport the local potatoes.
I've done loads of knitting this month, but have very little to show. It's almost the end of the month, so I'm going to pick one of these projects and force myself to finish it before November. I'm one of those people that need firm goals to get anything done. Can you tell that I am constantly amending my my 'to-do' list.
By the way, have you RAOK'ed anyone today? I've be RAOK'ed by the ebullient (how does one speel that word? )Tink. She's such a sweetie...makes me want to get on Eurostar and personally help her with her finishing.
Oh yes.. and why can't one take pictures in the autumn and winter in Britain... well you can, but I like my pictures taken in natural light. Certain colors, particularly reds don't photgraph well with the flash and it's hard work touching up pictures. So, I like to take my things out to the garden to photograph. The only problem is, I leave work in the dark and come home in the dark, so weekday photos can never be photographed outdoors. I count myself lucky in that I only have to get up around 5:30 (well, 5:45, since the husband always spoils me and takes the first shower). Poor Wendy leaves the house at 5 am!!! That's before the early bird gets up, never mind getting the worm....
I risked being picked up by the police to take this photo. I like my pictures taken in the daylight but it's impossible to do this outside of spring and summer, so what's a girl to do but to ... go outside and jump up and down under the security floodlights in the garden until it comes on. (I had to do this a few times because I wanted to make sure that I had really good pictures).
The neighbours must have thought that a prowler was about especially when the lights kept going on, then the flash went off on my camera. So while they had previously thought I was strange, tonight's episode will no doubt confirm their worst fears. Americans are well known for having no shame.
So, I went outside not to show you my 'not yet finished' raglan, nor to wave about just one fluted bannister sock, but to show this :
Thanks Secret Pal You were the best secret pal and now you are my not secret pal. (Do I get to reveal that I know or does Heidi want this reviewed on a specific date... I am so bad with reading instructions) What a lovely gift! In fact, I loved all your gifts. I am really touched by your generosity and thoughtfulness.
The colours are divine and now that I have take a photo of the goodies, I'm going to go and try out the sweets. (Haven't I shown enough restraint for 1 evening?)
Oh Fiddlesticks!
I've also signed myself up for the fiddlesticks knitalong hosted by Liz . Why did I do it? I've got 2 Fiddlesticks patterns burning a hole on my desk and well, I needed a push to get going, so I'm signed up.
I literally dashed out of the house with my camera, the moment that I noticed the rain clouds looming over the garden. Autumns in London can be so dreary.
Makes me want to chant :
Of course, chanting this might have the opposite effect.
So finally, I show the unblocked Flower basket shawl...
and the first of the Fluted Bannister sock.
I wanted to lay these thingies onto my plants to show off the wonderful foilage but a rather large spider detered me. I am a total wimp around bugs.
Eltham Raiders
Taking advantage of Rowanette Jill's absence, I thought tell you about how I acquired the shetland yarn for the flower basket shawl.
It was December 2002 and a cold wintery day. Rowanette Yvonne, well-known and well-loved by many of the knitting lists including KBTH, UKKHandknitters and Knit Rowan, arranged to have the Nancy Vale studio in Eltham, opened for a little yarn raid. The design studio occasionally does this for friends of people working there, to get rid of odds and ends and finished samples. The odds and ends could be 100g skeins or 1kg cones. Most of the yarns were classic yarns in wool, acrylic, cotton, alpaca, etc.
Eltham is ALL the way on the other side of London, but what the heck, Rowanette Jill and I arranged for a raid. I took the day off and Jill and her wheelie suitcase and me and my Liberty bags (the ultra strong industrial size one) headed over to 'the other side'. We met up with Rowanette May and basically lost control.
We were of different sizes and builts so there were no fighting over some very desriable things. I found a large bag of odds and ends shetlands for £5. The bag weighted about 2kg and had everything from 25-100g balls in lace, 4ply and dk weight in a variety of colours. I was in heaven! The perfect sampler bag to swatch fairisles and intarsia.
In fact, this was right before my lace addition. The best bit was, I was able to share some of these balls with different friends who wanted to do lace shawls. I also left with some wool/polyamide boucle, a large bag of lace weight pink wool/acrylic blend, a large cone of green shetland yarn and 2 jumpers which to this very day, I still wear. Jill had a big haul but with her wheelie suitcase, it all went in perfectly.
We had lunch in a nearby cafe. Jill had the egg and chips and May and I both had a baked potato. I remember May asking for coleslaw on the side. Obviously, she hadn't realised that they don't do things like that there. I also remember trying to coax Alpaca Woman out of work to join us, but no dice. Fortunately, Alpaca Woman reminded me to take the Liberty sale carriers because the wool was heavy and the bin bag that they gave us wasn't all the strong. What a day and what great memories.
and more on my sister's wedding
Hair Dressing Ceremony
Getting the bride ready for the wedding is a time consuming exercise. The hair dressing ceremony is the first step of the bride, transitioning herself into adulthood. The Chinese only consider married people to be adults. Even in Chinese New Year, only the unmarried are eligible to receive red envelops.
The hair-dressing "saw tul" ceremony is performed between the bride and a 'lucky woman'. A lucky woman has living parents, husband, children (boys and girls) and a comfortable position in life (comfortable = wealthy). On the morning of the wedding, the lucky woman will come to help dress the bride's hair. She will say auspicious words while brushing and putting the hair up into a bun. Traditionally, upswept hair is a style for married women, that's why most Chinese brides wear their hair in upswept do's.
and because some of you had asked to see the full wedding dress....
Rowanette Lesley, you mention that it was hot in Sydney? Well, this dress weighed over 10 pounds and had to be laced really, really tightly or the weight of it caused it to start sliding down. Not only was it heavy but it was hot to wear.
I'll post some proper photos when I get them. These were just a few snaps that I took before the wedding. I was running around like a 'one armed wall paper hanger' during the wedding, so I didn't get a chance to take many pictures. The photographer also got a bit annoyed with the guests that kept jumping infront of him while he was trying to get shots. (and I'm afraid of the photographer, since he has the power to really make me look bad in the official pictures.)
The Flowerbasket Shawl
I got home after dark today so no new photos. In fact, now that autumn is here, I always leave the house before the sun rises and come home after sunset. I'm not going to see much sun before or after work until late spring. How's that for a depressing thought.
The shawl is knit in black shetland yarn. It's equivalent to a 4 ply yarn. I just used one strand. I got it during a visit to the Nancy Vale Studio (Thanks Yvonne) in Eltham. I'll tell you more about the Eltham raid this weekend. Rowanette Jill is away at the moment, so I'm not likely to get into trouble for telling tales ;-).
Large Man Raglan in a very small gauge
While the gauge is small, this raglan is man-sized. I'm going to have loads of memories every time I see this sweater. It's traveled with me to the US twice and it's visited many tourist destinations throughout Austria and the UK.
It's true (at least to me), what people say about knitting. If it's got bad memories for you, give it away, or throw it away. If it's got good memories, keep it forever.
Raglans are a particularly good sleeve shape for the broad-shouldered. This is one shape where you don't have to adjust the width at the shoulders to get the seams to sit properly. You might have to adjust the sleeve length thought, but that's much easier to do. Raglans are also more interesting to knit. You at least get to decrease, and over a large swatch of plan knitting, the more excitement the merrier.
Only the front to finish before the big sew-up. I usually hate sewing up, but this baby might be an exception. Looks like I might use up all 15 skeins of Rowan 4 ply soft. It knits like a dream and super springy (good for hiding tension problems). I'm hoping to have it done in about a week and a half's time. It will be a labour of love and in many ways, I'll be a bit sad to see this one off the needles.
More on my sister's wedding ...better get a coffee.
How to Select Food for a Chinese Wedding Banquet
A lot of thoughts goes into planning a Chinese wedding banquet. All the food selected, are chosen for their ability to convey deeper meaning, like the tea ceremony, the themes remain the same, fertility, longevity and happiness.
The traditional banquet will have 8 course. 8 is a very lucky number. It sounds just like the word wealth.
Normally, you start with the piggy platter. This is a cold appetiser, with roast suckling pig, sliced beef, jelly fish and ham. The pig is symbolic for purity.
The next course is usually the shark's fin soup. This is a very expensive delicacy and is a sign of wealth. If you're very lucky, you get bird's nest soup.
Lobster and chicken are always included. Lobster in chinese is compose of 2 words, mean dragon shrimp. In chinese wedding, you always have the dragon and phoenix, symbolic of yin and yang. It follows the notion of balance. The chicken is symbolic of the phoenix. (Have you ever eaten phoenex claws for your dimsum?). Together the represent the balance in the union between the husband and wife. The chicken is normally fried so that the skin takes a red hue. Red of course is a lucky colour. Both these dishes would be served with head and tail intact. Wholeness/completeness is important.
Sea cucumber, another delicacy is also served. It represents selflessness and sound like 'good heart'. Like marriage, it's symbolic of give and take and to work together to avoid conflicts.
Abalone and scallops are often served. These 2 delicacies represent wealth. Peking duck is sometimes served, the red skin signifies happiness. It is served with the head and butt intact. (Although I know this to be traditional, it's been a long time since I've had this at a banquet.) Squab (aka pigeon) is served to represent peace.
Fish is usually the last dish served. It sounds like abundance (wealth) in chinese.
At the end of this comes the noodles (for longevity) and rice.
For dessert, you get fruit and hot sweet red bean soup with lotus(year) seeds (heirs) and bak hop (a bark-like vegetable) to ensure that your marriage lasts. Don't forget to save room for the cake ;-).
So what did Sis have at her wedding?
Cold platter (roast piggy, jelly fish, roast beef)
Shark's fin soup
Lobster salad
Crab claw
Chicken
Sea Cucumber
Fish
Abalone and Conch
Lotus Wrapped Rice & Noodles
Oranges and watermelon
Lotus paste sweet soup
Cake.
Yes, there was a lot of food. Being practical people, the doggie bags come with the first course. The guests are expected to pack up and take home any left-overs. We are not wasteful people! It's a sign of the host's generosity and the guest aren't supposed to be able to eat everything.
A few observations
1. The banquet is traditionally paid for by the groom's family. The bride's family negotiates for a certain number of tables. Should they wish to invite more than alloted, they have to pick up the tab of the extra guests.
2. The tables are always round, symbolic of longevity of the marriage, like the ring / alliance.
3. Westerners buy too much food from supermarkets without a thought to where the food came from. Many of the westerners at the banquet were grossed out by the lobster and chicken heads. I think that the menu had too many delicacies. Expensive but not enjoyed by many of the guests. (Could someone please pass me a peanut butter sandwich?)
4. The bride and groom didn't get to eat much of the meal. They are always obligated to go around for a toast with each table. When you have over 30 tables, you end up toasting the whole evening and eating nothing. (and the wiskey coloured liquid in the glass, is a concoction of coke and sprite.)
5. The bride changes her dress several times. It was a statement of wealth to be able to afford several outfits just for the wedding. My sister had 3 dresses for her wedding. (Although dresses can be passed down, my mother is 5'2" and weighed about 85 lbs when she got married. I could wear her wedding dress when I was about 10 years old. When I got married it would had fitted perfectly, on one of my thighs. )
6. To go to a banquet, in chinese is translated to 'to drink alcohol'. So in addition to eating, you also get to drink too.
7. Weddings are family affairs. Children are encouraged to come. (You invite the head of the household and family. You don't list the names, this is considered rude, whereas in western culture, not listing names is considered rude. )
8. And because Ida and Rev Jen asked....here's my sister on the way to the church. She's going to kill me for publishing an **unapproved** photo, but I don't care, I think she looks gorgeous.
I had a really busy September, what with my sister's wedding, jaunting around in DC and Austria that I'm still downloading photos from my camera.
I finally got myself a copy of Interweave, and went to Sarah Elizabeth's site to sign up for the FlowerBasket Shawl Along, but it was too late. The sign-up was closed.
What the heck, I can still knit-along even if I'm not officially part of the knit-along. So I did just that. Somewhere over the Atlantic on Thursday night, I cast off the last stitch.
I know, it looks a crumple mess, but lace is like that when it comes off the needles. It was sitting in the sink for 20 minutes, soaking away before the great block-up.
Here's a preview of it, all pinned out. You don't get to see it unpinned until the weekend, when I take it outside for the photo shoot.
Here's a close-up
Christmas knitting
and.. . while still over the Atlantic, I started my Christmas knitting. This is my 3rd sock from the Six Sox Knit-along. The fluted bannisters are being knit-up on the GGH Marathon that I got from Austria. I'm not breathing a word about who they're for. It's top secret. To my knowledge the recipient doesn't know about my blog, but I have been *found* my several people that I didn't think would find me, so better safe than sorry. It's a nice stretchy, rib suitable for men-socks.
and my sister's wedding ?
went swimming well. We had a Catholic ceremony in St. Patrick's Old Cathedral , which has the distinction for being the original Cathedral of the Archdiocese of NY and one of the location for the filming of theGodfather. Afterwards, there was a traditional Chinese banquet and tea ceremony.
Unfortunately, the church was located right by the Feast of San Gennaro and streets were all blocked off. My poor sister had walk half a block in her white dress, in the rain to get to the ceromony.
The Tea Ceremony
The traditional wedding tea ceremony is composed of 2 parts. The first part is performed by the bride to her parents. This is an offering of thanks for her parents for their guidance in raising her. The tea is poured into earless cups and served with both hands. The bride kneels throughout the ceremony. The tea is hot (but not boiling hot) and the bride must take care to not spill any of it. First, serving her father, then her mother. Following that, all the senior members of the family.
The second part of the ceremony is performed by the bride and groom. The tea is laced with lotus seeds and 2 red dates. Lotus in chinese is pronounced as 'lin' very close in sound to year, seed is pronounce 'jee' which is close in sound to heir and date, pronounced as 'jo' sounds like 'early. This was to assure that the newlywed couple would produce an heir early in the marriage and every year. The dates and lotus seed make the tea sweet, providing for sweet relations between the bride and her family.
The tea is served again with both hands, by bride and groom first to his parents (father first) and then subsequently to all the immediate family, starting with the most seniors (great grandparents, grandparent, uncles etc.). With each cup of tea, the bride addresses the family member by their formal name.
Second Uncle, please drink this tea. Upon drinking the tea, the family member offers the bride a red envelop and in most cases a piece of gold jewelry. the bride is assisted by a few chosen women (happily married), who will get a red envelop from the bride. Only members of the family more senior than the groon will be served team and the tea drinkers are seated while the groom and bride kneel (bride on left, groom on right)
In the more egalitarian (i.e. modern version), the ceremony is merged so that the bride and groom serve both their families. All senior family members and siblings are also served tea. Familiy members in lesser seniority are served with the bride and goom standing. Only married people need to give red envelopes.
So what was that Grey Stripey Yarn from Yesterday's post?
Rowanette Dawn gave me a ball of grey stripey yarn minus label, but since several people have inquired, I went around the sites hunting down this precise yarn. It is Regia Sock Yarn Wool 4 Ply Patch Antik Graphit 5752 . (Go on, click on Regia and have a look for yourself.
I was actually surprised that it was Regia but all the Antik Graphit colours are all pretty manly and the blues look divine.
Are you impressed? Please don't send me bits of yarn and ask me to guess at the origins. I think that I was fairly lucky to track this one down.
What else did I buy in the Big Apple?
Well, I always try and make it to the various bead shops in the Fashion District. It's always nice to buy some unusual beads. The large packets are for me, the apertures are large enough to thread yarn. The smaller packets are a gift for a friend, who's addicted to beads and would give an eye-tooth to be with me,as I trawled through the various beadshops. (She should thank me for saving her from bankruptcy.)
Then there was also a trip to Habu Textiles. I met up with Lis, Ann and Kay. The girls were amazingly well-behaved, but I did rather a lot of pawing.
In the end, I bought this. Ann asked me what I was planning to make with it. I (uhm) haven't the foggiest idea yet).
I bought enough to make a garment (2 skeins for a total of 20 oz.) I need first to dye it, as there is no way I am going to knit something white. White clothing + coffee + me = stained clothing. So, I need to do a little research to understand how to dye it. It's made from bamboo, so I think that it'll probably dye like rayon and I'll need to look for cellulose based dyes,as opposed to protein based. If you've got any bright ideas ....
We all tried on lots of stuff, I rather like a cropped boxy cashmere top that cost the earth. I figure that I could knit it fairly easily myself so I put it back. Ann rather fancies this and it looked so fabulous that we all persuaded her to buy it.
Finally, I wanted to show this yarn, given to me by Rowanette Ben. I love subtly variegated yarns, when knitted up they tend to have a heathery effect. Varigated yarns composed of 50 colours, all competing to have their say, doesn't really do it for me. I'll knit them, if I think that the recipient would like them, but colour (as Rowanette Jill often says) is a very personal thing and we must all see them differently.
I've never seen this brand before, but it is really unusual. It's been dyed in a lobster pot.
The colour is salt rose and doesn't it really just pop-out at you? I mentioned this yarn to a non-knitter, who's thoughts on the subject were, what a waste of a perfectly good lobster pot.
Denim People Knit-along
...and did you see? Anne's finished her Paris and started Dolly. Going at my current rate, she will no doubt finish Dolly before I finish my Bomber.
Small stuff
It must be the weather (wet, rainy and slightly chilly) but I have been knitting up a storm recently. I always have some knitting with me (usually tucked in my bag or by my chair at home) so even with small gauge projects, I can sneak in a row here or there (these stolen stitches are twice as sweet).
Fortunately, on my AA flight earlier last month, I was able to knit, and I had the metal Inox circular needles with me, so I was able to start and finish these. Now, I wanted to take these home with me to block before I gave them to my dad, however, when I went to look for them on the sofa, they were gone. A little investigation, lead me to find them safely stowed in my dad's sock drawer. No doubt this was a sign that they don't need blocking afterall.
I very rarely knit for my dad. He's not really a sweater person, preferring the comfort of polyester fleece to wool. But socks are great since it does get rather cold on the East Coast. Usually, I make socks for my mom, but I snuck a pair in for him too. He doesn't have very large feet, so I had quite of bit of yarn left, so I thought, why not granddad and grandson socks?
Why not , indeed. The little socks are nearly done, just one more foot to go. I really need to thank Rowanette Dawn for sending me some of her plain sock yarns. How I wish my family would like some bright colours, but no luck. They just love the neutrals, so one of these days, if you see Amelia or me with a black eye, no doubt it will be due to some punch-up over some boring shade of yarn that no one else wants.
I felt just like the man from the Charmin ads. It'll date me, but he went around stopping people from squeezing the toilet tissue to find the softest. Please don't squeeze the Charmin.
I've decided to run a little test, thanks to a query from Sarah Elizabeth. Is Regia Silk softer than Lorna's Laces?
Well, I thought, let's take out the socks yarns and see. (If you're suspicious, try this blindfolded.)
I have excluded Fortissima, Opal and Socka from the trials for 2 reason. The printed yarns always tend to be a little harsher than these brands. They do soften up after washing but I find them still not to be as soft as these. The other reason is that I just couldn't get to them, they were piled under some other stuff and I didn't feel the urge to dig them up for the line up shot.
Form the left:
GGH Marathon- 75% superwash wool, 25% polyamid
Regia - 75% superwash wool, 25% polyamid
Lang Jawoll Cotton - 49% superwash wool, 35% cotton, 16% polyamid
Regia Silk - 55% merino superwash, 20% silk, 25% polyamid
Koigu PPM - 100% merino wool
Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock - 80% superwash wool, 20% nylon
Here are the results:
With the Lang Jawoll Cotton - very soft but even with the low cotton content, you knew right away that it was a cotton blend. It is my favourite cotton blend. The high wool content makes it soft and I find it a nicer yarn than the regia cotton blends.
Comparing the Regia Silk to the normal Regia - the silk was noticably softer.
The GGH and Regia were about the same.
I thought that the Lorna's Laces was softer than the Koigu and the Regia silk was softer than both. So, Sarah Elizabeth, the silk blend is the softest. One key point though, I have only seen the single colour yarns, so if you want something with more colour, you might prefer the other yarns. I don't know how these yarns stack in price either. I bought the Regia silk in Vienna for 4.95 euro a skein and reckon that you'll need 2 skeins for most socks. I know that regia is sold at much higher prices in the US, so you might find the Lorna's Laces to be a few bucks cheaper.
And in from Postie..
All the way from W. Yorks... a birthday present from Rowanette Louise.
Isn't it just gorgeous? It's perfectly knitted and appears to have been blocked as well. How does she do it? I never seem to get rectangular pieces, even with blocking, usually, it's almost rectangular or almost square. I don't deserve this, but I LOVE IT!
I think it's a feather and fan pattern, done in Kid Silk Haze. Now how did she know that I needed a new scarf? She also kindly sent me some Noro squares for the Afghan for Afghanns Afghan-along run by Ann and Kay . I'm going to take a photo of them too, once it stops raining.
Denim People Knit-along Update
In case, you didn't catch this... Kris has finished her Raspy and it looks dreamy. I am starting to feel guilty about my lack of progress on this knitalong.
What a dreary wet Sunday. I think I'm going to go and snuggle up with my new scarf over a cup of hot Lady Grey tea.