Fast and chunky

I spent last week bimbling around the heavenly lanes of Venice, with yarn far from my mind.... until I happened to pass a shop whose window display was a veritable shrine to the colour grey. (Those who know me well are aware that showing me grey yarn is like offering me crack... in fact I probably own enough grey yarn of varying fibres to knit myself a pack of life-sized huskies.)

So - even the presence of a belligerent, tourist-hating shop owner having a fag outside the shop and doing all in her power to block my entrance was not enough to hold me back from the grey fondley goodness. (And in fact she cheered up considerably once she spotted me breezing past the 'fun fibres' and heading straight for the cashmere).

But I was very good and managed to be quite restrained, coming out with nothing other than with two balls of Casma yarn - an Italian branded baby alpaca that is gloriously soft and, in this case, marled in lovely shades of grey.

It was just the thing I needed to make a birthday gift for an old friend of mine and, once I returned home, I found an excellent free pattern on ravelry to complete the project. It's called "simple braided cable scarf", by Madeleine Berrevoets.



The scarf knits quickly on 8mm needles and uses a simple cable pattern to result in an undulating shape. It's ideal for people who like a long, narrow scarf that can be wrapped around the neck several times or one that can be worn long, in the style of a lariat.

Click here for full ravelry details.

And here are a few more pics...