A Net!

After several arduous hours knitting my gift yarn in cafes in Spain...

... and a couple more in rainy Cambridge Annette is done! To underline the celebratory atmosphere of this occasion, I got my friend to take some photos of me in it outside Party Mania, the one-stop shop for all your plastic shark, anchor and mermaid needs.

This is an excellent pattern, and I'm still so excited to have snaffled this lovely yarn for free!

The only mods I made were to lengthen the sleeves, and shape the neck-line with short-rows and finish it with an i-cord bind-off. I am pleased with the smooth finish this gave, although it did lead to a little bit of pattern uncertainty where I picked up the wraps, as you may be able to see in this photo.

It's nothing I can't live with, however, and over all I am heartily pleased. Hooray!

Puns Means Prizes!

When the new Summer Knitty came out, I immediately fell in love with Annette, a cute short-sleeved lacy cardigan. My ardour was magnified when I realised that the title was a pun! The stitch pattern is fish-net lace... Annette... a net!

As anyone who has met me can attest, I am something of a pun geek. When I commented on this particular piece of wordsmithery in a Ravelry discussion board, I wasn't expecting anything more than the customary groans that puns tend to elicit. Imagine my surprise, then, when the designer of the top replied not only congratulating me as the first person to spot the play on words, but also offering to send me the yarn to make an Annette of my own as a reward!


The designer is Helene Rush, and the yarn she sent me is Babyboo, a supersoft bamboo/nylon blend from her own yarn company, Knit One, Crochet Too. I was so very delighted to receive this yarn, not least because I have never encountered it in Britain.

My exciting squishy package arrived the day before I set off for Spain. The yarn is wondrously soft, and surprisingly resilient - I machine-washed my swatch to no ill effect; its glorious pink reminds me of a 1950s lipstick. It is also, coincidentally, the perfect thing to be knitting in the baking heat of the Spanish summer, and I have been happily dragging it round everywhere with me.

I would like to thank Helene once again for her generous gift, and for giving me the opportunity to try out her lovely yarn under such exciting circumstances!