Yarn from Far Places…

My paper copy of Northern Knits by Lucinda Guy arrived on Monday and while thumbing through it I remembered that I wanted to knit the cover design, the lovely and delicate looking Pia laceweight Pullover. It uses Ullcentrum Öland One Thread Yarn, which is a lace weight of course and is literally one thread, no plies. I’ve never knit anything in a lace weight. I tend to use aran weight for cardigans etc. and still have at least seven cardis in various stages of progress on the needles. So I shouldn’t really be contemplating knitting anything new…but…. Well, I’d been considering my knitwear recently. I’d been thinking about the fact that I hardly wear any of my handknit cardis in work, mainly because it tends to be too warm. I tend to wear thin, storebought cardis, often in black.

Logic would dictate that I should knit more lighter cardis and in black because I’d be more likely to wear them. Fine things can also be scrunched into a bag more easily. But knitting in black doesn’t thrill me and nether really does the prospect of working with thin yarns. Why then did I decide, completely out of the blue then, to order four skeins of lace weight yarn? You see I got home after work on Monday and found myself googling Ullcentrum Öland and ordering four skeins of the one thread from them in the red shade. It arrived yesterday

Ullcentrum Öland Order

Here are some closeups

Ullcentrum Öland One Thread closeup 1

Ullcentrum Öland One Thread closeup 2

When I interviewed Lucinda for KnitCast she told me that you have to wash the finished garment in quite hot water in order to full the sweater and I was a little alarmed at first by this idea, but now that I’ve seen the yarn I understand why. It’s made traditionally and is of a course texture when you first handle it. It still has bits of twigs in which remind me of Noro yarns. I expect that it will look beautiful once it’s been washed and blocked but I’m not too sure what it’ll be like to knit with.

The pattern calls for you to cast on 400 odd stitches which did make me swallow when I read it! But I’ve wound one skein into a ball and was ready cast on last night until I realised that I couldn’t find my 80cm long 3mm circulars. So I’ve ordered two pairs – one bamboo and one addi turbo and will see which handle the yarn best. I do hope that I don’t find myself becoming perturbed by all the stitches, I do have such a lack of patience sometimes, and that I finish it but we shall see!

5 Replies to “Yarn from Far Places…”

  1. Love the colour – like crushed summer berries. I have been knitting things which begin with casting on hundreds of stitches lately – one had 542 in the bottom edge! It takes a while but the results are well worth it. You just have to stick at it and try and enjoy the process.

  2. Pingback: KnitCast » Blog Archive » KnitCast 29 – Lucinda Guy - The podcast about Knitting by Marie Irshad

  3. I, too, have decided to make this same sweater, the Pia laceweight Pullover. I love it in the marbled grey color of the book.
    Where did you find the lace weight yarn? I’m looking on-line and having a tough time finding it.
    Have you finished it? How did it turn out?
    I’ve done several “complicated” sweaters, never keeping one for myself. This will be my first, if I can find the yarn.
    Happy Holidays

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