A long time ago, in a land not so far away, a Wool Princess's mother crocheted a lovely giraffe blanket for her little princess. She then sewed and hand-tied a soft cotton backing to the blankie and it was the little Wool Princess's favorite blankie ever. When she grew up and had little princesses of her own, the Wool Princess gifted the giraffe blankie to them.
Yes siree, that there is a 35-year-old acrylic blankie. And it is still my favorite. Even though it's not wool. ;-)
On to woolly things. I'm still carding and spinning the Mystery Fleece I started working on a year ago, but have started knitting it into the Epaulet Jacket from Elizabeth Zimmermann's "Knitting Around". For a $6.00 investment, this is the most lovely fleece to work with, soft and shiny, and the perfect gray. The pattern is worked top-down, and the first bits are engineered more than I'm used to, so this was supposed to be finished a week ago, but I'm only mostly done with the first sleeve and starting the second. Have a look:
I'm knitting a firm garter stitch for the back and forth knitting (firm per EZ instructions) and optioned to knit the sleeves and body in the round using stockinette stitch. No purling allowed! I'll cast on a few extra stitches for the front steek when I'm down with both sleeves. I won't actually finish the sleeves completely but will leave them on cables until the body is ready for a hem, that way I can decide later what I want to do with them, and make sure the lengths are even. I find it's a good idea to let the knitting age for a day before hemming as the knitting does need to contract to it's normal resting state, unblocked. At least this method works for me. See, I can learn from my past experiences!
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