Woo hoo! A new fo!

I FINALLY finished the Lace and Cables Capelet from VK Holiday 2006! Yay! Here's a picture of me modelling it.
Looks nice, no? Here's another one that I took modelled by a chair.
The cables come out much better in this one. And now for the wannabe-artistic shot.
The pictures of the capelet modelled by me were taken using the timer function on my camera, where I would line up the shot, press the button, and run into place for the shot, so they're not the greatest. Anyways, here are the deets:

Pattern: number 4 from Vogue Knitting Holiday 2006, Lace and Cable Capelet
Yarns: the black stuff is Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Aran, the red stuff is Christmas Market Hanpaint, called Kolibri, a handspun wool hand-dye which you can look at here.

Pattern mods and notes:
The charts, downloaded from the VK website were large and easy to follow. This pattern uses simple lace and cable patterns, so I did not break a sweat at any point, except for the collar. I ran out of yarn, even though I had purchased more than 100 yards of the listed yarn requirement. And I didn't knit way too loosely, my FO blocked to the exact pattern measurements. So I had to swap in a much narrower cable for the collar. All things considered, I think it looks OK. Also note that in the picture, the capelet is shown held closed by a button, but button/buttonhole instructions are NOT in the pattern! So I winged it. And I was annoyed by the vagueness of the blocking instructions, only the depth from the back neck to bottom, and length across the bottom are given, but no measurements for the shoulders. I have wide shoulders, so I stretched the shoulders out a fair bit, because pre-blocked, they didn't sit at the right place.

Yarn notes:
I really liked the Kolibri, and I would definitely buy again, but the colorways are a bit bright. I definitely wouldn't buy it again without a specific project and yardage requirements in mind. Also it is VERY soft.

Now for the Rowan Yorkshire Tweed... where do I begin? There were bits of twig and hay, oh, every 6 inches? I'm used to picking out some vegetable matter in yarn because of my preference for the rustic and hardy yarns, but frankly this was ridiculous. Especially for a formerly higher-priced wool. Now it's discontinued so you can get a deal if you look for it, but in my opinion it's NOT worth it. Comparing this to the more reasonably priced Kilcarra of Donegal Tweed, this yarn is thicker. And coarser, less fun to knit with, but I suppose that depends on the colorway, as some dyes process the yarn more, and make it softer. I have noticed that some colorways of various yarns are softer than others. But this stuff was fairly hard on my hands. And, though many of you already know this, I will say it again, DON'T SEAM WITH THIS YARN. As I was weaving in the ends, it would come apart very easily. Luckily this capelet was worked in one piece, so no seaming.

General comments:
I don't think this number will be particularly easy to wear, becase it tends to slide back, and then the shoulder shaping is in the wrong place and it looks weird. I'm also not happy with how the lace looks. I think that for such a thick yarn (worsted/aran) there should be more openwork. Or the lace parts should be worked on larger needles, but then stitches would have to be picked up for the yoke. Luckily the variegated-ness of the yarn makes up for the lack of visual interest. I could have blocked the lace out more, but I didn't want to overstretch the cables. Also, I'm not a fan of the bobbles. In hindsight, I should have left them out. In short, this project reminds me of why I don't usually make VK patterns, even though I love to look at the pictures. The finished piece looks GREAT in a still-life, just not on me!

Ivanova