Cumulus - a design by Brouhaha

I vant to be alone!!!



Er... not really (wish I could pull off a Greta Garbo imitation of that, but no chance with my short peasant heritage). But what I do vant is for you to admire my latest project, hot off the needles: the Cumulus scarf!

I'm quite pleased with this one, especially because I designed it myself (sort of). I took the main stitch pattern out of the Barbara Walker Second Treasury and had to do a bunch of math to make it fit into a triangle.


Then I knitted a picot edging...

... with some mauve beads!

I couldn't think of a proper name for this at first. I had gone with "April Showers" but (a) it's not April yet (and I'm nothing if not a stickler for accuracy); and (b) the name didn't quite fit.

I then looked up "cloud" on Wikipedia. A "cumulus cloud", apparently, usually has a puffy cotton-like appearance, with noticeable vertical development and clearly defined edges.

Well, that seemed to fit. Also, "cumulus" in Latin means "heap or pile", and that certainly fit when I first finished knitting this:

I was actually quite despairing last night at the state of this. I couldn't see how it would turn into anything remotely decent looking, and had resigned myself into making into a fancy oversized pincushion or something along those lines. However, luckily for me, it blocked quite well!

Notes:

Pattern: by me, adapted from the Porcupine stitch pattern (Barbara Walker's Second Treasury of Stitch Patterns)

Finished size: 43" x 12"

Yarn: Rowan Kidsilk Night - 1 skein - 227 yards. This took virtually the whole skein. The "Night" range has little tiny sparkles throughout - you should be able to see them if you click on this picture:

Beads: mauve seed beads from Arton shop here in Toronto - 22 in total (one on each picot point)

Needles: 3.75mm Addi lace

Start Date: 22 March 2008

Finish Date: 25 March 2008

Notes:
- I think possibly I used needles one size too large and the stitch pattern is not as defined as I would like. I would go with 3.25mm or 3.5mm next time. I used the larger needles as I only had the one skein of the Night and wanted to make sure this was a decent size.

- I've made this as a wedding present for a co-worker of mine... and I'm not even invited to the wedding!!! How cool am I?! Too cool for school, obviously.

- The shape of the triangle turned out a bit odd for me as well - the stitch pattern was a nine row repetition over 12 stitches, and I think the math to actually make this all work out was a bit too complicated for my dummy brain. But I think overall it looks quite nice, mostly due to the fluffiness of the yarn.

- I enjoyed working with the mohair a lot more than I would have thought. Which is probably a good thing, given that approximately 1600 metres of it is winging its way to me from Vancouver, courtesy of a yarn auction held by Sivia Harding last week:




Discontinued Handmaiden Angel Hair in the Bronze and Burgundy colourways. You knew I couldn't resist rare Handmaiden, eh? Sigh.

All in all, a success - especially because it only took three days to knit - maybe about 15 hours.

Now I must fly away...

I've got parties to attend this weekend as the Leftie Lawyer convention is coming to town. Skipping the convention, but not the parties. This makes me feel very grown-up and ...

...happy!

Not to mention the latest Italian silk loveliness progressing apace...

A lovely Friday to you all.