Having completed almost all of my holiday knitting, I am feeling free to pursue a couple of new projects. I was captivated by Kate Davies' Rams and Yowes. (Thank you Kate!) So glad to know that I was misspelling "ewe" at least by Scottish standards!
I'm only several inches into it but here is a sample couple of rows.
I have Maddie and Steeleye Span to thank for my understanding of how to pronounce "yowe" (we call it a "ewe" on this side of the pond)...
The simple repeats of the rams and the yowes remind me of stranded stuff I did in the 80's...and also of Princess Diana's sheep sweater...
(Apparently this pattern was published in McCall's in 1984).
ANYWAY I am knitting this mostly from handspun. A couple of years ago I purchased a whole navaho-churro sheep's worth of creamy white roving from Cassie and Kurt at Little Creek Plantation here in South Carolina. It's a LOT of roving and I wasn't sure what to do with it, especially given that it's a bit itchy next to the skin.
I have found that if I ponder my stash and think about and search for patterns, I can come up with a great combination and this is one of those. (There needs to be a name for this process of matching other than "creativity.") My gauge is larger than called for but heck, it's a blanket, why not make it big??
Speaking of Scotland, I came upon this fabulous video at youtube.
This an an old video of croft life and sheep on Eriskay, in the Hebrides. This provoked me to learn a little more about the Highland Clearances which despite having been to Scotland I did not learn about.
I'm only several inches into it but here is a sample couple of rows.
I have Maddie and Steeleye Span to thank for my understanding of how to pronounce "yowe" (we call it a "ewe" on this side of the pond)...
The simple repeats of the rams and the yowes remind me of stranded stuff I did in the 80's...and also of Princess Diana's sheep sweater...
(Apparently this pattern was published in McCall's in 1984).
ANYWAY I am knitting this mostly from handspun. A couple of years ago I purchased a whole navaho-churro sheep's worth of creamy white roving from Cassie and Kurt at Little Creek Plantation here in South Carolina. It's a LOT of roving and I wasn't sure what to do with it, especially given that it's a bit itchy next to the skin.
I have found that if I ponder my stash and think about and search for patterns, I can come up with a great combination and this is one of those. (There needs to be a name for this process of matching other than "creativity.") My gauge is larger than called for but heck, it's a blanket, why not make it big??
Speaking of Scotland, I came upon this fabulous video at youtube.
This an an old video of croft life and sheep on Eriskay, in the Hebrides. This provoked me to learn a little more about the Highland Clearances which despite having been to Scotland I did not learn about.
That was a fabulous video and I enjoyed it tremendously :-) Imagine the sense of community and belonging that those people must have felt (even tho it was a hard life). Something sorely lacking in the world we live in today.
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