This year will be officially halfway over next week and looking back over the past six months I see I haven't done any really big projects. Oh, I've had fun. I made some great little baby hats and socks and a beautiful Feather & Fan scarf. And, come to think of it, there was that massively huge sweater I made in about three days when I was in Argentina. Technically, that was big, but it didn't take long. Not since last December, when I applied myself to finishing a sweater coat I saw on the cover of Interweave KNITS (and started last July), have I really dived in deep. But now, it's time. I found my next big project. YAY!
I was down at the shop the other day and noticed a number of new samples hanging up. As much as I love experimenting with colors and patterns and improvising, sometimes I see a sample that strikes me as so perfect, I want to make it exactly the way I see it, right down to the colors. In this case the sweater is called Lapwing, and it was designed by Jane Ellison for Mirasol Yarns. It appears in The Mirasol Collection Book 7. I gotta say, the entire book is fantastic-- I mean, I love just about every pattern in it. I am bound and determined to start that sweater this coming week and have it ready for Fall.
As it turns out, I found in my stash the exact amount of a yarn that is the same weight and color as the main color in the pattern. It's Alpaca and hand dyed by a woman I buy from when I travel to Oregon each summer. So that's my one big change-- slightly different yarn but it looks the same and feels very similar. For the trim, I am using Mirasol K'Acha in a bright shade called Magenta Magic (it's a Merino/Alpaca/Silk blend in 60/25/15).
My plan is to really take my time and do this thing right, beginning with a swatch to figure out my gauge properly. I also read through the pattern and will do that another time or two before digging in. And while I had the book open, I couldn't resist drooling over the other patterns and also reading the intro where I learned about the Mirasol Project. Using some of the profits from the wool sales, the company has established a school that focuses on both education and health for the children of their workers. You can read all about it here. Very cool-- makes me want to move to Peru and help out at the school.
I hope you're working on some good projects this summer. If you haven't been in the store in awhile, do come on down and see all the groovy new samples. There's also a sweater by the front desk that Suzanne knitted up and it's just gorgeous. I'll do a separate post about that soon with pattern info. Meanwhile, here's a closeup of the sweater I'm going to be working on:
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