string theory

Just how long is a piece of string?

Or rather, how long should it be? I am still struggling to determine the perfect size for a stole. I have an Oilily woven woollen stole that I love, it's just the right width but not quite long enough. The Vionnet stole that I knit last is a good size, perhaps still not quite long enough, but turned out to be too heavy. I know that I like a scarf to be at least as long as I am tall so that it can be doubled around my neck but is this necessary for a stole that I like to wear across my back, one end hanging over my left shoulder and the other end over the shoulder?

Point is, I am three-and-three-quarter repeats through my Faux Russian Stole. The pattern calls for five-and-a-half repeats and I am deliberating about doing only four and a half. This is causing me some measure of anxiety! What if that is not long enough? How will I know that the five and a half is not the right length, the length that it should be if I don't actually knit it that long? But would it be annoying to have too much extra stole floating around? And being knit from a recycled cotton/linen/silk blend, it is already getting quite heavy. Oh, questions, questions!

But of the most significance is, am I sixty-seven per cent of the way through it or eighty-three??

vionnet

The Vital Statistics
Pattern: A rectangular stole knit on the bias in garter stitch with a row of eyelets every now and then; that is, I made it up.
Yarn: My obsession with Noro Yuzen (56 percent wool, 34 per cent silk, 10 per cent mohair) in shade 3 continues into its seventeenth ball; this took about 8.7 skeins judging by its weight (435 grams or about a pound).
Needles: 4.5mm.
Start to finish: 1 May to 1 June 2011; I took a few days break to knit Nessie.
Stash/recycle content: Nope.

Comments: Hmm. Hmm-mm. I love this yarn. I love this colourway. I love it in garter stitch. But I don't love this stole. I think that I have said before that designing something is really difficult (I'm sure that many have said that before, and long before me). How to achieve that perfect marriage between shape, yarn, texture, drape, all of those essential elements that just make something work.

I wanted something really big with this yarn in order to see lots of it but this big is too big, too heavy, unwieldy. I wanted it in garter stitch and did it on the bias to make it a bit more interesting but the stripes are too narrow for my liking. (They're a bit wider in one section because I had one ball from a different dyelot that I spliced in colour by colour.) I also managed to run out of yarn (despite having weighed the work after finishing the set-up section) and as a result had to cast off a good few rows before finishing the final corner.

Verdict: Hmm, not sure. I don't think that this works in its current form. Do I want to rip it out and use the yarn for something else? I do actually have an idea for something to do with some self-striping yarn but it has all been spit spliced together and with that whole other ball spliced in ... really not sure. Perhaps I'll just wear it around the house for a bit, although it's warming up here now so that might not be anytime soon. Hmm, it has a reprieve for now.

yū|zen knitting

I don't think that I have ever really fallen in love with a yarn before. Sure, I've knit with stuff that I've liked and planned to go back to but never before have I had the desire to stash as much of something as possible, just for the sake of having it there, should I ever have the whim to make something from it.

The fact that the yarn has been discontinued undoubtedly plays a part in this urge. I'm talking about Noro Yuzen by the way, 56 per cent wool, 34 per cent silk and 10 per cent mohair. It's what I knit the Olearia cardigan from and am currently knitting a bias garter stitch stole (I'm calling it Vionnet) and Nessie from.

I love the texture of this yarn - a bit rustic - and the colour saturation is just wonderful. I'm not one particularly for shiny so silk-blend yarns often don't appeal but in the Yuzen I think that it is a raw silk and it takes the colour particularly well. And it looks great in garter stitch. If there is any knitting wisdom that I may ever pass down it is to knit self-striping and variegated yarns in garter stitch.

My only reservation about it is that it seems to be a bit rough on the hands; my fingers are a bit dry and chafed. Hard to tell whether it's the weather or the yarn. Nevertheless, I want to get my hands on as much of this as possible and in as many of the colourways as possible. I see a whole lot of garter stitch in my future (and hand cream).