Things have been a little quiet on the knitting front here at Oliver Boliver whilst my wrist has rested up. Not knitting was probably one of the hardest things I've had to do and required more will power than a yo-yo dieter in a cake shop! It seems to have done the trick though and whilst I was on leave from my wonderful hobby I spent a little too much time browsing patterns on Ravelry.
I've wanted to knit something with Manos Lace for a while (especially since the full range arrived into my webshop a few weeks ago) and particularly wanted a 1 skein project. Whilst there are some amazing lace shawls which would showcase Manos Lace beautifully I didn't want to simply add another Ishbel to the project count (sorry Ysolda, no offence though really!) as shawls aren't really something that feature heavily (if at all) in my wardrobe.
I stumbled across a designer called Martina Behm who has a lovely range of scarf patterns, mostly triangular shaped and quite a few knitted specifically for Wollmeise yarn. (If you've not heard of Wollmeise then you're probably safe as it's a very beautiful and coveted hand dyed 4ply yarn from Germany famous for gorgeous colourways such as Rhubarb which look good enough to eat!).
After a lengthy peruse with a glass of wine I decided that Trillian would be the one for me and my single skein of Manos Lace. It's a lovely pattern and very simple to follow. The scarf is constructed sideways and simply increases by 1 st every 2 rows creating a very long triangular scarf with a tiny lacy ladder-like edge. Not fussy, just nice. I made a small swatch and decided that 2.5mm needles would make a slightly smaller scarf in Manos which would suit me just fine. I couldn't see that anyone else had knitted it using Manos Lace before and I do like to take on a challenge!
Image courtesy of Martina Behm
I started knitting it a few weeks ago and meant to take a picture then but the light levels here have been awful so I managed to grab a few minutes in the garden this afternoon and shot these pics:



You can always guarantee that there's an errant pet on any of my photos. The fluffy cat you can see is our beloved Benny who, I can assure you, is quite massive! In fact, he's so big that he's thrown the scale of the shot altogether as he's made the scarf look quite small!
The colours are really beautiful in this colourway, Vidia. Lots of berry purples and hints of pinks, toned with a very calm graphite grey and a touch of natural. Sadly the photos here and in the shop website don't do the colours justice as they are just stunning! I was a bit sceptical about knitting so much garter stitch but it has been heaven to knit and the fabric which has been created is so lightweight and soft, you barely feel it next to your skin. I loved the very short colour changes too, as it means that the likelihood of them pooling (stacking on top of each other) is quite tiny and where they do pool, it simply adds to the creative effect as the colours run into each other like watery ripples.
I will need to every so slightly block the ladder lace edging which you can just about see running up the left hand long edge of the scarf so that you can see the effect although it's not absolutely necessary if you hate blocking. I do hope that it will be finished soon as I would like to wear it now the weather is starting to get a bit chilly in the morning and I will keep you posted on any updates! I've posted a Ravelry project about it and will pop in the final measurements and swatch details once it's finished.
The full range of Manos Lace is available for £10.99 (usually £14.99) in the webshop with free shipping worldwide for orders over £25! I can assure you it's all gorgeous and if Benny got the chance (which he most definitely has not!), he would most certainly make a little cat nest snuggled up inside a big bundle of it!
Happy days!
Pen x