Blame Anne Hanson

Anne Hanson of Knitspot is a lovely person I’m sure. But she’s been the cause of my downfall on more than one occasion. Her beautiful photography, her sense of style, and her gift with a yarn over have seduced me on many occasions. I have two projects on the needles at the moment and about 10 more in my queue. I own more of her patterns than any other designer I follow.

Gale is the stuff of legends at The Purple Purl…but you have to be there to hear the saga – let’s just say it’s been around for *ahem* a while and has had some challenges:

But what really sunk me was Leafprints. Not only the pattern, but the perfect pairing of pattern and yarn. Somehow I found myself (along with a few of my cohorts) ordering 10 skeins of mink/cashmere from Great Northern Yarns.

When it first arrived I wasn’t sure about it – it feels a bit like cotton, not what I expected at all from mink/cashmere. As I began to work with it though, the mysteries of the yarn started to open up. It started developing a soft halo that was only enhanced after I washed it. Soaking it in Eucalan removed the spinning oil that was on the yarn.

Inside dark shot before washing:

Bright shiny shot after washing:

The colour did lighten up quite a bit and the bright shiny shot is closer to the real colour of this spectacular yarn.

My advice? If you want to order an affordable bit of luxury (you can get two cowls out of one skein), then go quickly.Great Northern Yarns is wonderful to deal with but wow do they sell out quickly!