A Little Splendour

Ooof I have been bad at updating lately. I blame baby brain and pregnancy fatigue! That's my excuse and I am sticking to it. Well being honest its because I have been self imposing deadlines on myself - no idea why, I just have - and its been keeping me busy. And there has been a fair bit of fatigue, but its all normal of course.

This is a project that's taken a while since conception to fruition. I started something approaching a year ago, when I made the decision that I wanted to make the layering shrug on Ravelry. I had some spare money, so I approached Patricia, the dyer and owner of the Etsy shop Yummy Yarns UK. I had a specific idea of what I wanted. I wanted to create a yarn that was next to skin soft so I could specifically wear it over vest tops, one of my favourite things in the world to wear. And I really wanted, after seeing a pairing of wool and silk plies done by someone else in her fibres, to do just that. One wool ply, one silk, for softness and drape. So we decided on a merino sparkle braid, and a mulberry silk brick, and I gave her my colours.

The fibres arrived and were perfect, so very pretty, and were more than I could have hoped for. You can see what I mean above. Now for the long task of spinning them, and for the first time, with the intention of making lace weight yarn when plied.

It took a long time and in the end I used last year's Tour De Fleece to kick my behind into gear and get the yarn finished.




So, the pattern was written for a contrast colour, and I had no idea what I was going to do about that. Probably skip it all together.But while in the process of spinning the fibres, Patricia listed an overstock of  these batts:

They go by the name of Mermaid, and the moment I saw them, I knew they had to be mine.I knew I wanted to use the small amount of the yarn I spun from these as a contrast. So I spun these as lace weight also:

Now I always knew I would have most of this yarn left over. I have yet to decide to do with it, but I will figure it out at some point.

So, onto the knitting. I finished the shrug a few days ago and its everything I hoped it would be. 






I have been wearing it a lot since I finished it, so pleased with the fit, and the fact I knit extra pattern repeats for the sleeves. Its come out just as I had hoped. And obviously this is a big, big thumbs up for Yummy Yarns UK.

So I have the perfect shrug in just my colours. Which is good, given that when I sport a bump, vest tops are exactly what I will be wearing, and I will need it. And the very best part? I spun nearly 1100m of this yarn, and I have well over 400 left, enough to make myself a small shawl. So that will come at some point in the future too.

Well that's me for now, till next time!