Great Minds think alike

I remember a few weeks ago having an aha moment when I was talking to Julie Asselin and fondling the baby llama from Illimani yarns at the same time. WOW wouldn't it be awesome if you could hand dye the baby llama. We looked at each other with such glee and excitement..... Fast forward a few weeks and I get a call from Sylvie at Lettuce Knit in Toronto... She wanted hand dyed Illimani yarns in Julie Asselin colours. And, thus, a knitting partnership was born. The next thing you know, Ilimani yarns sent yarn to Julie and here is the first look at it. More will be coming soon

Being a bit of a yarn brat, I insisted I should get first dibs and try out the first versions. Yesterday, the hand dyed silky baby llama arrived. Sorry, I am feeling very possessive... they are all mine ;-) I had been searching for days, for what seemed like weeks for a pattern that would show off the great colour work, great yarn, still look good on me and require minimal finishing. Yesterday, Arleen spoke to me.  Worked in the round from the top down with no sewing and simple raglan increases... she won the contest.

Big thanks go to Kam of Everyday Peacocks for combing through her 6,000+ favorites in ravelry to help me find the perfect project.... there are a few I have discovered and can't wait to knit.

Arleen by Donna Knits

So, I dutifully swatched. Rarely do I do this, mostly out of laziness and also lacking time. My main concern was how the colours would look. Would I get stripes? Pooling?? So I did a rather wide swatch to check it all out.

 All was going great. It seemed like my bamboo addi clicks were just weaving their magic with the silk baby llama heavenliness. The, something did not look quite right.... I was only increasing for the raglan shaping on one side of the markers. Grant it I did not have my fancy everyday peacock stitch markers. I was using  my plain old clover green markers. And while they work fine on most projects. The addis and the silky baby llama were having none of that. So, I ripped back several rows and waiting until I could get to Mont Tricot and get my hands on my special Everyday Peacocks markers.

Well, the next thing you know, the rows were flying by with increases of either side of the marker. It is as if the marker just gently whispers and reminds me kbf before the marker and kfb after the marker. If you don't believe this happened... you should try the magical markers out for yourself

Well, not a great picture, but here is a picture of my progress thus far....

In case there is any doubt. This is a heavenly project. I will be updating you on the progress.
 Stay tuned....