Llama Llama Sweater!

This sweater has gone to its recipient, so I can now share it with you lovely people!



Yes, those are llamas!  A good friend of mine recently finished vet school and is crazy for llamas.  Years ago, I remember sitting in a seminar with her when our favorite instructor came in wearing a a yoked sweater with llamas.  My friend and I quietly argued about who would be brave enough to go ask her about it, and we ended up both going together.  Our instructor was flattered, but hadn't made it herself.... So, eventually, I figured out how!

I found a great llama colorwork pattern on this hat, and adapted it so that the llamas would have saddle colors echoing the rest of the colorwork (Celadon, in Palette, if you're curious.  The main body is Charcoal Heather).  The rest is all EZ and Barbara Walker.  Oh, yeah, and the endless Palette Stash.  1820 yards.  Booyah.

Icelandic Ninja

This was the sweater that almost  didn't happen. Nearly a year ago, Little Dude asked for another sweater.  Even though he has this one, and two others than aren't ravelled, it was hard to say no!  So I dashed through the stash, and started in with some handspun and vague ideas.  Ran short of yarn, screwed up the gauge, and lost half a ball of handspun.  That got thrown in the drawer, and out came some stashed Noro.  Again, ran short of yarn, plus the brown started to look much more purple than I anticipated.  That also got thrown in the drawer.

I wised up, scrolled through patterns on ravelry, and finally got Priscilla Gibson-Roberts book, Knitting in the Old Way, from the library.  I was drawn to the Sami-Inspired Tunic, but decided that that the Modern Icelandic Sweater 1 was a better choice.  I mucked about with Barbara Walker's Knitting from the Top down, a gauge hat, and a calculator.  Lo and behold...


Planning works.  Here he is, doing his best icelandic ninja impersonation.



I chose the colorwork in the yoke from a colorwork book I have, and would use a 2 stitch thick line next time.  One stitch just looks thin.  The yarn is, of course, Palette held double and on size 8 needles.  In other news, I'm finally making a dent in the crazy Palette stash, and this took another 1035 yards.  Just in time for them to release several new heathered colors...  Here is the sweater, ravelled.

Also, my recipe blog is coming along, though pictures are slow to be updated.  If you're curious, we had tilapia baked with sun-dried tomatoes with creamy tarragon peas the other night.  Easy. tasty, and really, really healthy!

Up next?  I can finally share a gift sweater with you, because its recipient finally got her hands on it!