Italian Yarn

I didn't buy a great deal of yarn in Italy, but I did buy some. I found a sweet little yarn shop in Sorrento and had a good old chat with the owner. She admired my Louisa Harding shoulder wrap but when I asked about ribbon yarn she said it was "filato del'anno scorso" - last year's yarn and therefore not cool enough for your average Italian (knitter or otherwise).

Why did I want ribbon yarn? Well, just before I left I saw this pattern:


Available for free here. I like the swag-like effect at the back - I don't know if I'm daring enough to wear it but I know mother would, so I feel I should give it a go.

The yarn used is S. R. Kertzer's Sari. Yardage is 95m/50g and for my size I would need four balls. This is 380m in total. Gauge is 14sts/24rows = 10cm over garter stitch using 7.5mm needles, but as the pattern calls for both 7.5mm and 20mm needles, I cannot think gauge will be critical.

Anyway, I found something that I thought would work:



Here's the bag, although the yarn is not, in fact Filatura di Crosa - it's made by a company called Bertagna Filati, which I've never heard of.

Here's the pile of it:



and here's a close-up of the ribbon and the jewelled bobble thing (technical term):



Nice, eh?

It's a yarn called "Tulipano" (yes, that means "tulip" - see how easy Italian is? You'll be speaking like a native in no time!) It's 70% nylon, 15% acrylic and 15% cotton. Yardage is 63m/50g (so less than the Sari) but if I need a total yardage of 380m, I need 380 divided by 63, which comes to 6.031746. I have therefore bought 7 balls to be on the safe side.

The shop does have a website but, though I have the address, I can't seem to find it. In any case, I have the phone number so if I do run out of yarn I'll simply telephone and ask her to pop a ball into the post for me.

In other news: I'm still working on the Kerry Blue and it's coming along fine; I'm still working on the border of the Garden Shawl and it's not coming along at all; I'm still working on the Kimono Jacket and there has been no progress whatsoever.

Oh, and I came across this Knitting Beyond the Hebrides Lace Knitting Symposium. Everything you ever wanted to know about lace and more besides - I hope they leave it there and don't take it down at the end of the week!