I'm Going, and the Sweater is Coming

Big excitement: for months I have been plotting and planning to join a study abroad for Library and Information Science students. I kept it under wraps, because nothing is done until it's done, and I believe that fate can be tempted. But now that I'm 24 hours away from takeoff, I think it's safe to announce:

I'm going to England for a month. (!!!)

Thanks to an education that deemed world history unnecessary past 6th grade, all I know about the country comes from a strange admixture of literature, pop culture, and extensive readings on the history of the English language. So I'm going to the land of Wallace and Gromit and Chaucer, the venerable Bede and Harry Potter, Miss Marple and Adele, a Little Princess and the Young Victoria, Darwin and the Arctic Monkeys. It will be similar and utterly different. And I couldn't be more excited.

Mousie is coming with me, and of course the Pimlico Shrug. Everyone cross your fingers that all volcanoes stay dormant and no freak storms develop in the Western hemisphere between now and tomorrow. After that, let the heavens open up--I'll be in England.

(!!!)

Pimlico Finished

As usual, blog time is only an approximation of real time--although I'm just getting around to blogging it now, my Pimlico Shrug has been finished since Friday morning.

But I love it! The yarn is soft and warm, and the pattern has struck the perfect balance between slouch and stylish, as promised. I had to tweak the collar a bit--the increases, as many Ravelers have noticed, create a funny crease in the collar, and I worried that switching to a larger size of needle to approximate the same flare would result in too floppy a collar. Floppy collars and cuffs send me to despair. An attempt at camouflaging the increases at the switch from knit to purl ended in a small frogging session, so I went for option C: work the collar straight for the written length and bind off. This changes the look of the finished shrug, but so far I like it. And if I change my mind, I have plenty of yarn to go back and work a collar with increases.



Specs!
Yarn: Vermont Grand View Farm Natural Romney, all of 2008's CSA share (~16 oz) and 1 skein from 2009's share (~4 oz)
Needles: Size 6, 7, and 8 circulars and size 6 and 7 dpns. If you are not obsessed with Kitchener BO like me, you can omit the size 6 needles.
Pattern: Pimlico Shrug, from Knit 2 Together, by Tracey Ullman and Mel Clark
Modifications: All pattern tweaks are listed in agonizing detail on Ravelry.

As I might have mentioned one or six times before, I've loved the experience of working with a single-breed yarn, and being able to follow the action at the farm where those sheep live has totally added to the experience. This, combined with rave reviews of places like Beaverslide and Imperial Stock Ranch has whetted my appetite for some more single breed/single-farm yarn!

Pimlico Via Vermont

Here it is, the project I've been hinting at for a couple weeks now: the Pimlico Shrug.



I'm knitting it with my Vermont Grand View Farm Romney. This year's share came at the end of May, complete with goodies as before, and I wasted no time getting started on my project!

The Romney is a great yarn: two ply, with slight variations in thickness, and very wholesome and sheepy-scented. Up until now, the only single-breed yarn I've ever used is Merino, so I'm loving the experience of using a different single-breed yarn. And the Romney is a perfect match for the project. It drapes really well, and although it's soft and a little fuzzy, eyelet pattern on the body is sufficiently giant that it doesn't get lost in the fabric.

I am also loving the pattern: the body is one large rectangle and there are a grand total of two short seams, with sleeves and edging knit right to the body. Expect a FO photoshoot soon!