In my press kit I got a skein of Bamboo Ewe in a lovely dusty teal color called mermaid. The color reminds me of the 1940’s. The yarn itself is 55% viscose from Bamboo and 45% wool. It comes in a 177 yard skein which is enough for a one skein project. Right now it has 10 colors including a nice gray. I decided to try it out by making a cowl. It was billed as being soft enough to wear next to the skin. I was envisioning a floppy soft cowl that would be beautiful peeking out of a winter coat without being itchy on the chin and neck. I started by winding up my skein. I hand wind my yarn before I start I don’t have a ball winder. So I start by pulling out the inner end and tug, out comes a small yarn barf, nothing major they happen all the time in machine skeins. The yarn is very soft and the barf just fell apart with no knots. The rest of the yarn wound beautifully with no knots, joins or slubs. I love the consistency of machine spun yarns! So I cast on for the Candle Flame Cowl (a great free pattern from Ralry) on my 16 inch interchangeable Boyle aluminum tips in a size 7. The yarn flowed smoothly and was not splitty. The pattern does give the yarn a workout and I was concerned that it would look over worked but it did not. The bamboo gives it a nice sheen which is nice because it adds a dimension to the texture of the candle flames. The entire cowl took most of the skein. I could have done an additional repeat but I didn’t want the cowl to be too tall. I did the garter border instead of the tubular cast as a personal preference I am still a novice at the tubular cast on and it still looks homemade to me!
So I washed the cowl up and I did notice some dye in the bathwater not at a lot and it rinsed clear after a second rinse so I didn’t need to break out the vinegar. Also no wet dog smell. I did a light block no pinning and set it out to dry. It was raining when I blocked it so it took a little longer to dry. When it dried it was even softer with a slight bloom of the wool giving it a very mild halo. I have to say that I like this yarn, I liked knitting with it, and it washed up well. The colors are nice some are muted others bright. I offered the cowl to a co-worker. I told her to take it and try it with her coat, if it wasn’t soft enough around her neck to put it back on the file cabinet in my office and not to feel bad about it. I was testing the yarn and would not take it personally. So it has been a week and I haven’t seen the cowl yet! I love the stitch pattern. In the pattern she mentions as shawl. I loved the oval shapes in my Shetland Triangle and in this cowl so I may look for that. Overall a good quality workhorse yarn that doesn’t price people out of the market for Bamboo. I have one more yarn from the kit the Alpaca Love which I will write more about soon.
Links
Candle Flame Cowl - Rav link Free patternCandle Flame Shawl Rav Link Free pattern
That stitch pattern is gorgeous.
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