Parthenope

Okay, I still plan to post about more of the stuff I knitted in 2006, but I'm already getting behind on 2007!

My Most Exciting Knit so far this year has been Parthenope, designed by the lovely Courtney Kelley of the Smith Island Pattern Factory and Rosie's Yarn Cellar.

Here's the story of the yarn.

In January, Y and I visited my dear friend E in Manhattan. Now, E is sneaky. Way sneaky. She took us to a yarn shop, observed me carefully, found out what I coveted most in the world, and came back later and bought it for me for my birthday!

It was a skein of Sireno from The Great Adirondack Yarn Co., a fingering weight 50% merino wool, 50% silk, in the Kenya colorway.

This is serious luxury stuff. Soft as a soft, soft thing, with rich colors and an incredible sheen.

I pretty quickly thought of Parthenope. I really liked it when I first saw Courtney's sample, but I'm afraid to say that the yarn it was designed for, the much-loved and beautifully dyed Schaeffer Anne, is just too scratchy for me to wear next to my neck and face. Since my wonderful in-laws gave me a gift certificate to Rosie's for my birthday (woo hoo!), I went looking for a second skein of Sireno in Kenya to add to the one I had. With none to be found, Courtney suggested I pick a complementary colorway of Sireno and knit every other row with the other skein. We sifted through them all, but I kept coming back to a colorway called Fire (shown here in a different one of their yarns).


There's a lot of overlap between the two colorways in the greens, blues, and golds, but Fire adds in the reds. I twisted the two skeins around each other and let them get personal under the full-spectrum light for the rest of Knitting Circle night, and by the end, there was no separating them. Kenyan Fire was born.

And about six weeks later, the result was what Y has dubbed "Parthemily." (Click images for bigger view.)

The bed was the only place to block it, which presents some problems in a one-bedroom apartment with two people and three cats. Y and I slept on the air-mattress in the living room with cats jumping on our heads all night, while Parthenope dried all pinned out on the bed. I think I'll invest in or borrow blocking wires for my next big lace project, as the scalloped edge didn't come out that distinctly. (It doesn't bug me enough to reblock it, though!)

I did 21 repeats of the tile pattern instead of the 19 specified in the pattern, and I ran about a round-and-a-half short of yarn. Rather than frog the whole lotus border to take out a tile repeat, I just bound off after one ridge of garter stitch instead of two, which didn't end up bothering me at all.



I couldn't be more pleased.



And while I originally thought of it for fancy dress-up, I can't seem to manage not to wear it every day. Thank you D & J (the in-laws), E, and Courtney!!