FO(s): Tauriel and Custom Elvhen Triangle Scarf

Well, it’s certainly not Friday, but I figure it’s time I tell you all about the not one, but TWO objects I finished last week! A cabled cardigan out of wool/alpaca and a triangle scarf that someone commissioned from me on Etsy. I dyed the yarn and then knit the scarf for her costume for an upcoming convention. Pretty proud of myself for completing a “create this yarn and then make a thing with it” cycle AND getting paid for it on top of things!

First, the sweater! A bit before the end of 2014, I used the Random Number Generator system and landed on the 6 skeins of Berocco UltraAlpaca in a forest green colour that I’d purchased on Small Business Saturday in 2013 from the tiny little LYS/Fabric store/Indie artist boutique store inthe adjacent neighbourhood. So I searched Ravelry for patterns for the yarn and ended up on a sweater in my queue, Tauriel by Bonne Marie Burns from ChicKnits. I’d heard many good words for all of Bonne Marie’s patterns and the Chic Knits patterns, so I’d queued a bunch of them a few months ago. Fortuitous, because I think this yarn and this pattern (and this frigid weather we’re having) were made to be together.

The scarf is something I’ve knit before, but this one was a bit more special since I got to also dye the yarn for it. On my Etsy page, I offer a triangle scarf that was inspired by Merrill from the Dragon Age videogame, a character I also dye yarn inspired by. The pattern is from ALT Designs and is called the Elvhen Triangle Scarf. I knit the one I have and the one on Etsy out of the recommended yarn, Lion Brand Homespun, and hated every minute of it. I’m pleased to say this experience was quite different.

Let’s break it all down.

The sweater is knit seamlessly with a really unique construction. Full disclosure: I’m not always a fan of this. I understand that there are many people in the knitting community that despise finishing/seaming and therefore a sweater may never get finished just because someone doesn’t want to sew a side seam, but still. I feel like in many cases designers go out of their way to avoid seams, and the patterns suffer for it. Not the aesthetics of the sweater, but the actual pattern writing. In many cases I find myself having to read the instructions over several times as I desperately try to get a mental picture of how exactly this is supposed to work and what I’m supposed to pick up where and how it is that this thing ends up sweater shaped when it’s all over with, which actually discourages me from knitting a sweater more than having to sew a few seams would do. Also . . . I don’t always have four balls of yarn to attach simultaneously while I leave the other pieces on hold (nor do I want to). I prefer to wind a skein, use it. Wind a skein, use it. At best I’ll have two at once. The last thing I want is to wind up all 6 skeins and use a quarter of each of them and then have to sort out what yardage I have left on each skein and how I’m going to destash (if I’m going to destash) at the end when I don’t have full skeins. This pattern wasn’t too bad in that last department, I only had two skeins going at once and then was able to just use single skeins, but it did make me have to look at it cross-eyed when it was trying to explain the picking up of collar stitches. Not the worst ever, but I just don’t think we need the flagrant fear of seams that much of the knitting world seems to have.

The yarn was lovely to work with. It’s worsted weight wool/alpaca blend and it’s lofty and soft and has the nice alpaca drape and stretch while still maintaining the memory of the wool so the sweater didn’t get at all misshapen. It’s cozy and warm and not too scratchy, but not too soft either. The yarn knit well and wasn’t at all splitty or difficult to work with. It’s not a superwash, so I was able to join the ends with a spit splice and things seem to be working brilliantly there. My only gripe about the yarn is that when I blocked the sweater the water was basically emerald green from all the dye that bled out. As an indie dyer who works hard to make sure my colours don’t bleed or run or fade, I have to say I expect more from a large-ish commercial yarn company. It just means I’ll have to be careful about not washing it with other things that I might not want to end up green, at least for a while.

The sweater itself is fantastic. According to the pattern page, the design was inspired by the cold winters in the old, lofty house the designer lives in, and this is definitely a cozy, snuggle up with a mug of tea/coffee sweater. It finished blocking on Sunday morning and I’ve worn it Sunday, Monday, and today and I sort of just want to wear it forever and ever throughout the winter (it’s January, and today is the first day in two weeks that the windchill hasn’t started with a negative number) because the alpaca is so warm and the sweater is so snuggly. The only thing I’d change (and I still might) is that I knit the sleeves a bit short for my taste, so I may rip out the sleeve bind offs and ribbing and add another inch. My fault entirely, not the pattern’s fault. I ended up using about 20yds less yarn than the pattern called for, though YMMV since many of the project pages said they used more. That leaves me with about a skein and 2/3ds to do something with. I’m thinking cowl or scarf or hat or something amazingly warm and snuggly for the outdoors.

Blocking before the ends are woven in

Sweater in action. I don't really ever want to not wear it! Also, please excuse the poor photo quality. Jonas still hasn't figured out how cameras work, despite his best efforts. Also we took this in the living room at night so there was no natural light to speak of.

A bit before the holiday season, someone contacted me on Etsy to ask if I would be willing to do a custom order of the Merrill-inspired yarn and then knit it into the Merrill-inspired scarf for them to use for a Merrill costume at an upcoming convention. I was, of course, honoured and flattered that someone thought my yarn would be good enough to add to a costume piece and wanted me to knit for their costume. I took my time with it, and this colourway of the Merrill-inspired yarn is, I think, the best I’ve created since the first one (which I did on accident while trying to do something else and then promptly knit into my own cowl). I’m really proud of it. I sent the buyer a photo of the yarn and they loved it, so, you know . . . yay!

On Thursday at knit night I cast on the scarf. It’s knit with bulky yarn on size US9 (5.5mm) needles, so it works up fast, especially at the beginning since you start from the point of the triangle. I’d dyed up 200g/142m of yarn, so I figured I’d just knit the scarf in pattern until I ran out of yarn. I got about halfway through the ball of yarn by the end of knit night and then finished up the rest on Friday. It’s beautiful and lovely and the smoother yarn (the Homespun is really fuzzy) really shows the pattern well. I thought about dyeing this yarn in a single-ply bulky I have instead, but I didn’t. I think next time I might, because I think the little bit of fuzz/halo might be nice, but overall I’m really happy with this scarf and the yarn and I really hope the buyer will love it and it will make their costume better and make them happy for years to come. That’s why I do what I do. To make people happy with what I create for them. That’s the best reward I could ever ask for.