Only one Kit D is left! 

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A most intriguing design by Barbara Benson, Hazy Shades plays with two very different yarn to create one absolutely gorgeous cowl!

The Design

Here is how Barbara describes this: 

While I adore the look of stranded and Fair Isle knitting, I am not such a big fan of the mechanics of the process. Enter “Marlisle”, a technique that provides a lot of the look with less of the fuss.

I am also totally in love with all of the lace weight mohair/silk blend yarns that have been steadily gaining in popularity. While I enjoy simply using them to subtly shift the look and feel of an overall fabric, it occurred to me that it could be fun to play with the possibilities of color-work. So here we are.

By knitting sometimes with the lace held double with the fingering weight and sometimes with the individual yarns separately, a super fun and subtle visual effect can be achieved with a minimum of fussy yarn management.

Combining a light color of light fingering weight yarn with a variegated lace mohair adds to the shifting colors that you can achieve. At times the color-work is strongly visible but when the variegation loses contrast with the fingering weight the color-work fades. Randomness is something that can be a challenge to create in knitting patterns and the variegated yarn does all the work for you in this case. Of course, if you use a solid color of mohair it will look super cool too! It just depends what look you desire.

Yarn and Colorways

What is needed for this piece is 425 - 450 yards of light fingering weight yarn + 504 yards of laceweight mohair (or alpaca)/silk blend yarn

So we went on a hunt for mohair/silk blends and almost-solid fingering weights to pair with those, and found some great ideas, including some brushed alpaca for those who are not quite so fond of mohair.  

Here are the kits we have put together.  Notice that they are not the same yarns nor colorways that Barbara used in her original. 

 For each kit, there will be one skein of the  fingering weight yarn and two of the brushed yarn, either mohair/silk or alpaca/nylon. 

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Kit A

1. The Fingering Weight yarn is from Gusto Wool, their Core which is 80% merino + 20% nylon with 435 yards/ 100g.  The colorway is a lovely solid medium blue. 

2. The complimentary yarn is Halo Watercolor from The Alpaca Yarn Company, 78% brushed suri alpaca + 22% nylon, and with 257 yards per 25g skein (2 skeins will be in each kit).  The colorway is called Picasso and includes aqua, violet, and blue.   

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Kit B: 

1.  Again Core is the fingering weight yarn, this time in a light lilac.  

2. Halo Watercolors in the colorway named Nebula, with dark midnight blue, navy, eggplant and a bit of golden brown. 

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Kit C:

1.  Here the fingering weight yarn is from Malabrigo, their Mechita, 100% superwash merino with 420 yards/ 100g skein. The colorway is called Magenta and is an amazingly rich looking blend of magenta and fuchsia in varying tones. 

2. Malabrigo's new Mohair is a blend of 72% mohair + 28% silk and with 229 yards/ 25g. The colorway we have is called Anniversario but again to my eye it is a tonal blend of reds and magentas and fuchisas. 

So this will be a very intriguingly tonal kit. 

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Kit D:

1. Core is the fingering weight in a bright sunset gold

2. Malabrigo's Mohair in Diana, a warm mix of olive and magenta and gold. 

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Note that for Kits C and D, the brushed yarns are a bit shy yardage-wise.  I copy here what Barbara also wrote: 

a note on substituting yarns
Laceweight mohair blends come in a variety of different yardages per ball and some have more/less yardage than others. The way this pattern is written the second half of your knitting is simply stripes of alternating light fingering and lace weight. If you have less yardage on the lace weight you can simply do fewer stripes. And if you are pressed for yardage you can choose to knit the connecting tab in the light fingering weight yarn as opposed to the mohair.

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Also note that the kit will not be including buttons.

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The Pattern

Note that the kit will not automatically include the pattern and the cost of the pattern has not been added. 

I know some knitters prefer to get it directly as a PDF file of the pattern from Barbara via her Ravelry web page. In that case, set our Pattern drop-down menu to "No Pattern Needed" as you will be getting it elsewhere.

Alternatively, if you would like a printed copy, please make sure the drop-down menu is set to that. 

We also offer the pattern as a downloadable PDF.

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