Ophelia

It’s taken some time, but she’s finally finished.

Pattern: Ophelia which is also Raveled here

Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton in Tomato

Needles: Size 8, Knit Picks Options

Size: Large, or 36″ chest

Good: I love it!  It is still in need of a closure of some sort, but I haven’t quite decided what I will do about that.  I love the fit (post-blocking) and the lace patterns are beautiful.  The pattern was fairly well-written and any mistakes that were made (and believe me, there are mistakes) are purely operator error.

Bad: My ability to follow directions.  When the time came to separate the fronts from the back, there are directions to garter stitch the first two stitches on either side of what will become the armhole.  I believe this is done to keep the edges from rolling in.  But, in my infinite wisdom and with my impeccable eye for detail, I forgot to do this on one armhole opening.  So of course one armhole rolls in, as is typical of stockinette fabric.  Oh well…

So-so: The yarn.  Let me tell you how lovely it was to knit with cotton that wouldn’t make you want to cut your hands off.  The light twist and loft of the yarn is very similar to a softly twisted wool.  The yarn is light and lofty and incredibly soft.  And one only needs to look at the color to understand why I chose this particular shade.  Simply FAB!  So why is this so-so if I am so incredibly in love with the yarn?  KNOTS!  Yes, I said knots.  Nearly every hank of this yarn had knots in it.  And if there weren’t knots, the yarn was separating from itself.  There are still a couple of ends that are visible from the outside of the vest and I need to figure out a way to hide them.

Special thanks to Monique for the photo shoot.  For more pics, go here.

For those of you still around, thank you for reading.  I am still knitting and still wanting to blog.  But life has been incredibly strange and crazy this year.  A pregnancy and a miscarriage still haunt me from time to time.  And a recent decision to go back to school to get my teaching credential is enriching my life, but sucking my knitting time up.  Whatever small amount of energy I have left gets bled out of me slowly by my job (hence the decision to go back to school).  All this and I am still in good spirits and loving life.  I must thank my amazing family, both immediate and by marriage.  They are the BEST support.  And a shout out of course to my friends of the crafty sort who continue to inspire me each and every day!