After I finished my second Saturday Shrug, I still had some mohair leftovers. I decided to knit the Softie, a hat from the 52 Weeks Of Easy Knits by Laine Publishing that I bought last November when it came out.
An easy 1/1 rib hat with a little pointy top, matchy matchy with my second Saturday Shrug. I like hats that sit a bit high on the head. All warm and cozy for this quite cold February in Normandie 🙂
The pattern is well written and fun to knit, the colour work is not difficult at all. The Mohair yarn from La Ferme de l’Accroche CÅ“ur that I bought last summer is of the softest cloud type and my sweater is the lightest and warmest one I currently own. I wanted to make a colour work sweater from the time I saw the yarn in the store, and was not decided on a pattern at the time.
I took the opportunity of an offer that Camilla Vad had on her patterns and got two of them to read through and decide which one would fit my mohair. So the Agnes Jumper it was, as Esther had smaller motifs that would most probably get lost in the mohair fuzz.
I had to fiddle around, as usual, as I was not knitting at the recommended gauge and did not swatch (please do not tell anyone and do not do as I do..). I made an (educated) guess from the 1/1 ribbing at the neck, on smaller needles. Turned out fine ! At first I was kinda nervous as unravelling mohair is a pain at best and impossible sometimes.
This summer, during July and August, I visited three farms and yarn stores and bought yarn according to my yarn no-buy year guidelines (I allow myself to buy yarn in stores, given there are none next to me).
Now that I have all this beautiful stash, what are my plans or fantasies ?
This time, I will follow one recommendation some one gave me in a comment on my YouTube channel : print it from a real Xerox big copier that can keep a good resolution even when copying on a large scale !
This was a new farm to me, that I had been following on Instagram since the beginning of the year. When I visited, I first contacted her and turns out she had just opened her brick and mortar shop in her farm the day before ! She will keep selling open markets. When I visited, I already had a project style in mind : knitting a Bohus type colour work sweater. I need to find a design that will fit my yarn and gauge now 😺
A beautiful shop, a very friendly host and marvelous rustic yarns. I may have found my substitute to the one from Iceland I have been drooling over for quite some time.
I bought these two 1kg cones in the undyed white yellowish kind and the grey brownish one.
When I saw the grey one, I immediately assigned it to the Highland Thistle Sweater by Carolyn Holbrook. The right colour, the right yarn weight. I do not have a real plan for the whitish one other than a Mare by Natasja Hornby in combination with the grey one. I think I’ll use the very as the background couleur and the white as the accent one, as shown in a sample.
In both places I also got yarn for Rosemary Grant and shipped it to Australia (not talking about clearing customs for her..). She received it and likes it 😻 She also shipped some Australian yarn to me, so I guess this will be a swap, win-win 💙
The goats are incredibly friendly and kind, they come for scratches behind the ears and they do not hit you with their heads. These goats do not do that !
They are good mothers and not aggressive. The lady keeps the males for yarn, after being neutered, she has one (or more, I do not recall) for reproduction and cross breeding with other flocks. Even the male fleece is soft and long.
She made her store so beautiful in a barn, with nice wood floors, stone walls, hight ceiling showing the marvellous wooden work of the roof. She shares the shop with her mum who sells china from the area.
I did splurge a bit, and got a sweater quantity to knit colour work. Yes, with mohair !
They try to revive a local sheep breed that went almost extinct. They produce a very rustic yarn and now offer these 1kg cones that caught my eyes online. Their shop is just fabulous !
Laines à l’Ouest – Lessay
They also host pieces from local artists, poteries etc.
So I got two 1kg cones from this undyed yarn, one in the beigy creamy whitish colour from the clear fleeces and one from the greyish browny kind from all the fleeces, from white to black with all the grey and browns in between.
Laines à l’Ouest – Lessay
Laines à l’Ouest – Lessay
In both places, I also got 2 skeins to swap with an Australian online friend (the greenish blue mohair and the two smaller skeins above). I hope she likes them !
The Heatwave Scarf by Pia Trans was a bit of an impulse cat-on after I saw her video where she presented it. She sorta released this pattern early as everyone is knitting small scarves and ascots ! What I liked about her patters is the vaporous aspect of the scarf, the long ends that will keep a chest warm and the ability to tuck one end into the other to avoid having a bulky knot in the neck. This one I am swatching with yarn from my stash to knit Christmas presents.
August and Year Summary
All in all, I spend way more than anticipated this August (and all summer tbh) : €373.53 for a gran total of €1091.12, so €136.39 per month. More than I had planned for ? Yes. Am I feeling bad about it ? No. Good ? Yes. I have beautiful yarn in my stash that I will use up to my next summer vacation 💛
Knit Now 