Back to London, knitting-wise

Two years ago I ordered what I thought was a crazy amount of lovely alpaca yarn in a gorgeous shade of garnet red. I was going to knit a hooded poncho with it, but after ordering it I changed my mind (I don't wear ponchos often), and knitted a very large, very thick, very plain stockinette wrap. It took me about 6 weeks. It was lovely, and I wore it several times, and then realized I had made a mistake. I was wrapping the yarn backwards on my purl stitches, so every other row the stitches were twisted all the way around. It bugged me. Combined with the fact that whenever I wore the wrap I felt like I was wearing a blanket, not an elegant wrap, I didn't wear it often. So after a year I decided it was time to make a decision -- either wear the wrap as it was or frog (unravel) the entire giant thing and make something else.

In March I unwound it, and in April, with the help of friend Robin from the church knitting group, skeined it (1200 yards) and washed it. I still had another 3 skeins left over from the original shipment (2 skeins had gone into a beret which I loved until I inadvertently felted it down to Arabella size) , making a nice round 1500 yards of yarn, and with another 300 yards from a fellow knitter in Chicago I felt I had enough to start a pattern I had loved for quite awhile.



The Pimlico Shrug from Knit 2 Together. I loved it. I started on May 1 and on October 12 I cast off and wove in the ends. It is lovely. It is named for a district in London, and the young art girls there, and since I spent an autumn in London while I young art girl, I had to do it. Right?

Do I look all happy and proud? I knitted the body of the shrug in a diamond eyelet pattern, subtle but interesting.

It's part shawl, part cardigan, and all comfy.