Monday, May 08, 2006

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! Posted by Picasa

3 comments:

Mary-Lou said...

Pretty yarn! - looks similar to Ornaghi Farfalle

Anonymous said...

Hi from Austria! Oh, such a gorgeous yarn that you found in Italy, it's definitely perfect for the top - I love that pattern by the way, the way the back is done is so amazing! I'm looking forward to see the progress pics of that top, it's going to look amazing! Have fun knitting!

allisonmariecat said...

Ha! There are yarn snobs in every country :) I think it's pretty, and will make a lovely top.

Happy blogiversary!