Loving the Little Luxuries

I mentioned a few days ago that I was going to focus on luxury knitting for a little while.  It started with this beautiful seed stitch cowl I made for a girl I have known most of my life.  It's 3 skeins of the beautiful Ariosa yarn by Classic Elite.  Its 90% superfine merino wool and 10% cashmere.  This girl has good taste and it should suit her style perfectly.

 It's already in the mail and should hopefully reach her early this week.  She's promised me a picture of her wearing it and I can't wait.

 This next little beauty is a super soft and light weight bamboo blend cowl in a butterfly lace pattern.  It was on smaller needles (ok, 7s) and took me what felt like darn near forever (even though it wasn't).  I worked on it for almost 2 days straight.  I kept thinking about setting it aside and grabbing some bigger yarn and bigger needles, but I pushed through that and finished it.  I felt really accomplished when it was done.

 The silky soft bamboo yarn pools gently around the base of your neck when you put it on.  It weights very little and is such a delicate little accessory.  

 Next up is this feather and fan cowl I am calling the Princess Amelie cowl.  The yarn is a GGH yarn called Amelie (now you get it, huh?).  There is no actual animal fiber in this particular super soft yarn, so its a great choice for someone who wants the super soft look but who may be sensitive to animal fibers or mohair.  For those of you who knit, this was size 11 needles and 2 skeins of GGH Amelie.  

 This cowl also weights very little and pools gently around your neck.  You can also pull it up like a hood.  This yarn was heaven to work with.  I've had it laying around for a while and I have been trying to figure out the perfect use for it. (by "a while" I mean like 3-4 years) I have 2 more skeins, in the same color, and I haven't decided if I will do the same thing with those two or something else.  I can't even describe how soft and silky this yarn is, so you will just have to feel it for yourself. 

Now I have moved on to a mohair, silk, wool, & rayon drop stitch skinny scarf.  The picture doesn't do this yarn justice, its a variegated pastel strand plied with a lavender mohair strand.  The colors are gentle and feminine.  I only have the one skein, but I think it will make a pretty little accessory.  I started out with size 13 needles, but this yarn (Classic Elite Bravo!) was too tight on those needles.  I ended up on size 15 needles and only 9 stitches across.  The 9 stitches = 4 inches (so 2.25 stitches per inch).  Sometimes a simple stitch pattern is required to really showcase the beauty of the yarn.  

If you are interested in any of the above, please contact me.  Otherwise, I will be dropping them all off at Vi's Salon on Sheridan early this week.