Anyone who reads fashion magazines is familiar with these Gulliver-sized sweaters, scarves and shawls — and if you’re a knitter, you’ve undoubtedly yearned to make one, if only for the rapid results size 19 needles produce.
The only problem is that luxury yarns are expensive, and you need an awful lot to complete these projects.
In fact, the instructions call for 20 100-gram hanks. At an average price of $10.80 per skein, you can really rack up quite a bill.
The bold pattern is knit in Blue Sky Alpacas’ Frost — the perfect robin’s-egg blue. (blueskyalpacas.com)
In my newfound spirit of making do with what is at hand whenever possible, I opened my stash to find a bulky substitute.
I discovered six 60-gram skeins of Plymouth Yarn Yukon, 35 percent mohair, 35 percent wook and 30 percent acrylic, in beige, cream and rosy pink, then alternated the 24-row pattern blocks. The result is the warmest of neck coverings, more a cowl than a full-on scarf, due to its final length, 42 by 13 inches.
I downloaded the instructions to block the scarf, as I have never done it before (www.vogueknitting.com/node/230).
I think not using a single color really affected the three-dimensional effect.
Tonight, I’ll be turning my king-sized bed into a blocking station.
For information, see www.vogueknitting.com.
