Invictus Redux

When I was just starting to think about being a knitting designer, I released a free pattern on Ravelry for a simple lace scarf. I'm not much of a scarf person, but I thought that by releasing a free pattern for something that a lot of people knit (scarves), I could get my name out there, and then knitters would recognize my name when I started really designing. It doesn't really work like that, but what did I know. (Nothing.)

A couple of months ago, I totally re-did my first ever for-purchase pattern (Cascading Cables Mittens and Mitts) because it really, really needed it. I knitted new samples, re-wrote the pattern, had it test-knitted and edited, and felt way better about life. I started thinking that I should do the same for my free scarf pattern, just to tidy everything up and bring that last pattern up to my current standards and style sheet. Right around the time I was thinking about doing this, the online store A Good Yarn offered me a skein of one of their yarns to talk about on my blog, because they've redone their website and they wanted to promote it. So I've pretty much killed two birds with one stone, because here's my new sample for my scarf pattern Invictus, and also hey! A Good Yarn has a new website! You can order their specially hand-dyed yarns more easily now!

The yarn they sent me is an exclusive colorway to their store called Sweet Lips. It's dyed on a base of Lorna's Laces Pearl, which is 51% silk and 49% bamboo, so you can just imagine how luxurious it is. I will admit that I didn't like the yarn when it was skeined, but of course I forgot to take a picture of it, so here's one I stole from the store's website. Hope they don't mind. The colors are more vibrant than this in real life.

So no, I didn't like it like this, but knitted up, it looks totally different, and I really like it! I think this was a good pattern/yarn combo- the stitch pattern of my scarf really breaks up any pooling that would happen. The scarf has drape like nothing I've knitted before, and the shine is beautiful. One thing though, if you ever knit with this yarn, put lotion on your hands first. I found that the yarn snagged on all the dry spots on my fingers- silk yarns will do that. Other than that, it was lovely to knit with. I knitted the scarf during a l-o-n-g layover in the Dallas airport, and it kept me sufficiently entertained to not lose my mind. 

 I'm happy that I took the time to rework my scarf pattern. It's so much better now for about eleventy million reasons, but I think the top reason is this beautiful yarn. Can't wait for it to get cold enough here that I can actually wear it!