saroyan

I had wanted to knit this design for a while and then the right opportunity presented itself:

The Vital Statistics
Pattern: Saroyan by Liz Abinante, available for free.
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in shade CW365 Peridot. I was initially fascinated by the 80 per cent wool/10 per cent cotton blend of this yarn and bought a skein many moons back just to try it out. It is much easier on the hands to knit with than straight cotton and it would be great if it retained some of the properties of wool - keeping better shape for one. It's worsted weight and they also make it in a fingering-weight version, which if held double could pass for dk, a good alternative perhaps to straight cotton for warmer weather garments.
Needles: I used my 5mm Lantern Moon straights because they are such lovely needles. The fabric could perhaps have benefited from a little more body but then I wouldn't have been able to use the needles.
Start to finish: 8 February to 13 February 2011.
Stash/recycle content: Yes - the yarn came from the cupboard.
Comments: I worked four increase sections, nine straight sections and four decrease sections as my yardage allowed. The instructions for this pattern are great, the lace edging is both written and charted, and there's a diagram to show what percentage of yarn to use for each section. I also put a button on so that it could be done up snugly around the neck.

Verdict: This is a great pattern, not least because you can tailor it so well to suit whatever you have available to knit with. The leaves on the edging are straightforward enough but the mixture of stocking stitch, reverse stocking stitch and garter stitch surrounding them was hard to keep track of and prevented the edging from becoming intuitive knitting for me. I am very happy with the result though.