finally found a use for it!

Way back when, Needles generously gifted me with some lovely local (to her) Alberta alpaca. It's a gorgeous, fawn coloured wool. slightly more than fingering weight, and about 300 metres. Delicious stuff. I've been looking for the right pattern for it - I was definitely thinking scarf or shawl, knowing how nice the alpaca would feel around the neck, but nothing really spoke to me. Until this. This would be the Suncrest Shawl, from Tanis Fibre Arts. I saw it on her blog, and fell in love with it. (check the blog pictures - I think they show it off better than the actual pattern pictures).
But... problem. There wasn't enough of the alpaca to make the shawl. I knew I could make the shawl bigger, but I didn't want to make it smaller. So then I was on the hunt for something that would co-ordinate - I could use the alpaca for the garter section that will fall against the neck, and something else for the shell lace part. I found a couple of things that could work (Come on, the Yarn Store was having everything at 50% off! off course I bought a few options...) But nothing seemed quite right. So I stopped into Needles and Knits, to see what Tove could find for me. We looked at a few things - some alpacas, some sparkly things, but again, nothing was quite IT. Until Tove brought out some chocolate brown silk. That was IT. I knew as soon as I held them together.

The milk chocolate colour of the silk was the perfect tonal quality to bring out the lushness of the fawn colour in the alpaca.
I added enough stitches to add 4 more repeats of the shell lace, and used up most of the alpaca. I bought one ball of the silk, but halfway through it, realized I needed another, so I dropped back in to Needles and Knits, and picked up the other one. It's perfect.

I can't wait to see it blocked out, to see the lace all stretched out. Plus, that spaghetti-like mess on the edge of the fawn coloured garter stretches out and the join is great - it just looks like hell right now, but trust me, blocking will do wonders!