And You Thought Cashmere Yarn Was an Indulgence

Have you ever wondered what the most expensive yarn in the world is? I did, and googled it, and I believe it's vicuña yarn, which is pictured above, and which costs $300(USD) for a single ounce/28 grams. It doesn't look all that special, does it?

The high price is determined by the scarcity of the yarn and by the difficulty of its procurement and production. The vicuña is a South American animal that lives in the Andes. It's a relative of the llama, and possibly also related to the alpaca. The vicuña can only be sheared every three years, those who want to shear it have to capture it first (it's difficult to domesticate the vicuña because they are very good escapists), and then they only get about a pound of wool from each animal for their efforts. Vicuña wool is the finest in the world with a 12 micrometre diameter, and valued for its exceptional warmth. It's very sensitive to chemical dyes and so usually remains its natural cinnamon colour.

According to Incan legend, the vicuña was the reincarnation of a beautiful young woman who received a beautiful coat of gold in order to disguise and protect her from the advances of an ugly old king. Because of this it was against Incan law to kill a vicuña, and only Incan royalty could wear its fleece.

The vicuña is still a protected animal, having been an endangered animal during the early seventies with an estimated population of 6,000. Now that the vicuña population has increased to approximately 300,000, this danger seems past, but the Peruvian government is still working to protect vicuñas from poaching, loss of natural habitat, and other threats, and also controls the production of its yarn to reserve its profits for the local people. About 50,000 pounds of vicuña yarn is illegally smuggled out of Peru annually. All this is to say... I wouldn't recommend that you buy any cut-rate vicuña yarn if you get a chance.

I'm not about to rush out and buy any at the going rate, either. An economic concept called "the law of diminishing returns" comes into play here, by which it is meant that the benefits of spending more money for a greater quality and quantity of material goods level off after a certain point. There's no denying that cashmere yarn is better quality than acrylic, that it's warmer, softer, more attractive, and more pleasurable to wear. But at some point in buying luxury items, a cost-benefit ceiling is reached. Once you are reasonably protected from the elements by your garments and have more beautiful sweaters and scarves and other items than you can wear regularly, you're really paying for things like the rarity value of an item and the cachet of their ownership. Not to say that you're wrong in that, especially when by buying vicuña wool you're helping to support industry in the none too economically advantaged Andes villages, but for most of us cashmere is luxurious enough.

We're Going to Go Back, Way Back, Back in Time... and Steal Their Knitting Patterns

If you love vintage patterns, I recommend you pay a visit to Free Vintage Knitting, a web site containing a library of vintage knitting patterns, all free for the downloading. There are many, many patterns in their archive already, and the collection is only going to keep growing. If you enjoy the website and would like to give back by contributing to it, you can do so by donating your own old leaflets and pattern books to the site operators. Here are just a few of their patterns that caught my eye, with links.

A Vera Cruz dress. This could look quite contemporary if done in a different colour. Or even if done in a similar turquoise yarn from a modern dye lot. The dyes used date garments astoundingly. Dyeing technology has changed radically and the dyes from the sixties and seventies are always unmistakable.

Smart and classic cardigan. You'll be able to wear this one as long as it fits and holds together.

I like the striking effect of the cording on the front, but I would update this cardigan's shape a little by making it longer with a little waist-shaping and loosening the crew neck. The fit looks a little too prim here, like something a little old lady would wear because it's what she used to wear when she was young.

Socks with fancy tops used to be, to use a historically contemporary expression, all the rage back in the twenties through the fifties. We don't see them now, which is a shame.

Really pretty and striking little girl's sweater.

Very smart little boy's sweater.

This tiger-striped afghan isn't attractive at all in this colourway, but I can see it looking really sharp in a cream with black stripes.

Guys With Yarn and the Women (and Some Men) Who Ogle Them

You're looking at the images from a 2009 wall calendar created and published by Franklin Habit of The Panoptican. Habit planned to publish another calendar the next year if it sold well, but inexplicably it seems not to have done so.

Oh well, at least we'll always have those twelve images.

When Two Become One

I suppose this laptop-viewing sweater is one way to make sure that pesky real life events (i.e., your kids are playing with the electrical outlet, or your spouse announcing a decision to divorce you), doesn't distract you from your oh-so-important video game or internet chat or porn. But upon reflection you might prefer to knit your laptop its own little Irish cabled sweater so as to be able to store your laptop snugly away and do a little more living in the real world.

Moby Ripped

In 2007 Greenpeace Poland aired this anti-whaling commercial. It uses knitting to convey their point, and the imagery was so striking that it made me do a little Googling to find out whether I agreed with Greenpeace's stance that commercial whaling needs to be banned worldwide, so I'd say it's a success.

Gulliver's Knitting

After a previous post on miniature knitting, it seemed only fair to do one on gigantic knitting.

Laura Birek of Nocturnal Knits saw a picture of a very large-gauge Anthropologie blanket and got inspired to try making one of her own. She bought about six pounds of roving, slightly felted it, split it in two, and tried knitting it up using broomsticks for needles. The broomsticks proved too small, so she went to Home Depot, bought a 10' length of 1.5" PVC pipe, had it cut in half, added some tips fashioned out of duct tape, and set to work. She called the result a Giganto Blanket. You can see Birek at work on a Giganto Blanket on YouTube (it's a lot of fun to watch her wield those PVC pipes), and read more about the project on her own site.

If you want to try making your own Giganto Blanket, you can buy the pattern and a tutorial from Birek on Ravelry. Birek estimates it takes two to three hours to felt the wool and two to four hours to knit the blanket (it's only 28 stitches wide), so it won't be the biggest time hog of a project you make all year, although it will almost certainly be the biggest hog of a knitting project you ever make.

Rowan Knitting & Crochet Magazine 53: A Review, Part 2

So let's finish up with the review Rowan Knitting & Crochet Magazine's Issue 53, the first half of which we looked at yesterday.

This pullover is another of those items that I would never wear but that works in its own way, as a very contemporary, striking piece that's even reasonably flattering. Though if I saw it on anyone I'd have to suppress a joke about standing too close to an exploding photocopier.

This colour-blocked pullover is fun and colourful. Though as usual I'd fix the dropped shoulders.

This is a perfectly nice man's pullover, but if you are knitting this for a man, run the colour scheme by him first. The chest stripe bears a more than passing resemblance to a Gay Pride flag, and even a guy who's not at all homophobic may wish to avoid having to field some unwanted... offers... whenever he wears this sweater.

This is a man's sweater that will make people look. And then look again, to make sure their eyes aren't playing tricks on them or that they haven't hit bottom and must join AA. It's a good design, although I would have done it in a slightly higher-contrast colour combination.

This scallop-pattern top isn't appealing to me, but I think it's the colourway that's detracting from it. It's too afghan-like, and of course the ripple pattern is very afghan-like, and the result is a top that's entirely too much like a fitted afghan. Switching out the colours would turn this top into something quite nice, because the shape is really good.

I don't think a single man of my acquaintance would willingly wear this man's geometric-pattern cardigan, even if there were money on offer. The colourway doesn't help the pattern and the pattern doesn't help the colourway.

I quite like this striped and flowered pullover, but I would knit the intarsia flowers in more subtle or monochromatic colours. The design is striking enough without being punched up with bright, contrasting colours.

Very pretty floral cardigan, though it doesn't meet in the front. I'm really not a fan of the open cardigan style, because the sweater tends to end up looking like it just doesn't fit, and it isn't flattering.

See what I mean? Not flattering, even on this probably tall, slender model. And this isn't a pattern it would be easy to modify without ruining the look of it, as it appears to be knitted in one piece and the floral motifs are meant to curve around the sides.

Very pretty lacy top. I'd knit this pattern up exactly as it's written, and it's rare that I do that.

No wait, scratch what I wrote above about making this pattern exactly as written. I'd modify it to get rid of these ridiculous tails in the back. What the hell, Rowan. Now I'm having paranoid thoughts about what's going on in the backview of all your patterns.

The rose motif on this pullover are impressively detailed, almost to the point of photorealism, but the overall effect is too much like they've been randomly découpaged on the front of a plain sweater. I'd add a little rose detail somewhere else on the sweater, such as the sleeves, to make the design look more integrated.

A landlady I had during my college days once whiled away enforced bedrest during a difficult pregnancy by glue gunning some flowers cut from wallpaper remnants to a perfectly good, if plain, lampshade. The end result looked something like this cardigan.

Another cute summer top from Kaffe Fassett. It's very Summer of Love, no?

Very pretty eyelet-trimmed top. You will want to be sure you don't get the keyhole detail too low. The sleeve length looks rather awkward, but that's easily altered to whatever length you want.

Pretty, serviceable crocheted summer top, and there doesn't appear to be anything bizarre going on in the back view.

Very pretty floral pullover, which as you can see from this photo, will look wonderful with a coordinating print skirt, trousers or shorts. Alas, you'll never be able to find either a ready made item or any fabric like this.

I very much like this wrap from the front, but my enthusiasm was dampened by my first sight of the back. I'd envisioned the shawl as being something the wearer just slipped on over her head and that crossed itself in the back instead of tying. I don't wear shawls very often because I don't like the way they get into everything or having to fuss with them. They're fine for evening wear but it's too much hassle for every day. This shawl appeared to have solved that problem beautifully, but I don't care to see a tie at the back. Seeing underpinnings like that detracts from the look for me — it's too much like having brassiere straps show. Of course I may just be needlessly picky. The tie at the back doesn't look bad by any means, and even adds a little waist definition. And of course when it comes to evening wear, a woman doesn't want to be pulling an item of clothing on and off over her head.

This floral motif top looks a little less like a random design découpaged on the front than the one above, probably because the main colour yarn is a flecked colour which ties it to the stippled floral design. But as always, I have suggested tweaks: fix the dropped shoulders and the longer back hem, and make sure the entire sweater is no more than one size too large.

And that does it for the Rowan Knitting & Crochet Magazine issue 53 review. This time it really will be six months before I need to review another issue.