Spending some time on Ravelry is an essential part of my day. For me, it’s almost like showering or eating…it just has to happen at least once a day!

I was browsing patterns a day or so ago and happened to open my projects page. I realised in absolute horror that I have only one WIP that I’m making with SA yarn. Yes, I deserve every gasp after reading that sentence, on this, my blog about SA yarns! And I’m even more disgusted with myself because I’ve not gotten much further than when I took the picture. The pattern just isn’t working for the yarn, but the yarn is absolutely divine!

I got some Adèle’s Mohair Slubby Wool to make Caitlin, my eldest, a scarf. It’s 100% super smooshy merino wool and the balls are about 35m per 50g. On her website, Adèle recommends using any needle size from 6 to 15 mm. So it’s a versatile yarn that will have a vastly different appearance when knit with the smallest needle size compared to the largest, but both will result in a fabulous fabric texture.

Caitlin loves thick-thin wool and how it knits up on larger needles. She’s previously stolen a wrap I made with a similar weight and textured yarn, which I’m hoping to get back when I finish this (fingers crossed). She was with me at the shop and chose 4 colours (there are apparently 95!) out of the many she loved, to match her winter colour palette this year. I wanted to do something stripy but simple and decided to adapt the pattern I chose. I could feel, almost from the start, that it wasn’t going to work and then promptly, and conveniently, forgot all about it. 

But when I saw it again on Ravelry, I remembered how keen I was to work with this yarn, so it’s now at the top of my list to finish. I told Christo that I’m going to “frog” it and do something else. His response was one of total disgust at the term “frog”, he thought it sounds like a referral to frog dissection. It made me wonder why that specific word was chosen for undoing or ripping out your work. So I found out on Craftsy, for those who want to know, that it gets it’s name because “rip it, rip it” sounds like “ribbit, ribbit”. I love knitting humour!

I’ve since found a couple of patterns for cowls that beautifully combine slub wool with a much thinner weight yarn and I’m tempted to do that. The Bloom Striped Cowl is at the top of my list…
An adaptation of the Bamboo Thick and Thin Cowl is also an option. Caitlin still has to make her choice. The Simple Rules Cowl is a free “recipe” for how to make these. What I’m struggling to decide is what colour to choose for the thinner yarn. Any suggestions? 

Now that my mind is spinning with ideas, I realise that what I love about this particular Slubby Wool of Adèle’s is that it’s plied, giving it strength to use as a warp for weaving. All the other slub wools in my stash are single ply. I can only use them for the actual back and forth weaving (the weft). Singles just don’t have the strength for warp :-(.

I do absolutely love the look of fabric that’s been woven with thick-thin/slub yarn (click on the image or name to see these projects on Ravelry)…

Bright Charcoal by Lorraine 

Cobbles by Gai 

…and I do have some lovely thick-thin wool in neutral colours in my stash that I bought specifically for using as weft. So maybe I won’t knit that cowl with it after all, but weave a scarf instead! In which case I’ll still use your colour suggestions for the thinner yarn. Let me know what you think.

I believe this could be one FO that turns the tables and I’ll be stealing it from Caitlin for a change ;-). Funny how the wheel always turns…

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