Wrapping me up

Isn’t this a pretty thing? It’s Michigan’s own Chris de Longpre’s Wrap Me Up. Instead of knitting it with worsted weight, as the original pattern calls for, many knitters (me too) knit this sampler wrap in fingering weight sock yarn. In sock weight, my version of the wrap turned out to be 14 inches wide and 55 inches long. So, still quite substantial.

I started out with these three somewhat mismatched skeins of Opal sockweight. I got each skein on sale and I suspect they are all discontinued colorways:

And, this one, my favorite of the trio:

For each new section of the sampler, I tried to use a different skein. Sometimes the colorways needed to be butted up against the same colorway for at least part of a section.

Here’s a closer look at a few of the sections:


I find that some of my favorite projects are those that let me do a little bit of this and a little bit of that. In this pattern, all the sections are knit onto others as you move along. Except for one. That long section of stacked garter stitch triangles is knit separately and then worked onto the main piece with picked up stitches and the magic of mattress stitch.

My only modifications are that I knit section 4 in all one colorway. And I added bobbles to section 21, a narrow ending strip.

If I make this again, especially if I’m working with colorways that share some of the same colors, I’d not thread so many sections with the yarn you’re working with, as the pattern directs. I’d use waste yarn instead. The stitches tighten up some and picking them up to work with again was difficult at times.

The two long-side edgings are worked after the body of the wrap is blocked. This needed a very aggressive blocking and a few of the sections refused to be completely tamed. But I still like it!

One I made several years ago is a wrap I’ve gotten a lot of wear out of. Here’s a link to some closeups of the first one I knit back in 2010:

Lonesome Dove

This is Susan Mills Knits Lonesome Dove, not to be confused with the awesome Larry McMurtry 1985 novel of the same name. I’m often curious why designers name patterns certain names and always welcome their explanations. But the pattern gives no explanation. I don’t see a dove, lonesome or otherwise in this wrap.

But I do see a wrap that drew me to it from the first time I saw it. In fact, I was so enamored of the pattern photos that I decided to work the wrap inĀ exactly the yarn and colorways of the designer’s sample. I don’t do that often. Actually I often goof on colorway choices so maybe I should just be a blind follower more often.

The yarn is Plymouth Yarns’ Hearthstone, a marled sportweight in 80% merino and 20% alpaca.

I don’t work much in sportweight anymore. The yarn was a bit splitty, but that was sufficiently tamed by working with my sharp needles.

Here’s a closer look at a section of Lonesome Dove.

It was mostly a fun knit. A zillion bobbles will test a knitter’s stamina. But you get into a rhythm and then the work moves along quite nicely. With the knitting changing directions and yarns, Lonesome Dove is good for brushing up on your picking-up-stitches skills.

I’m confident that this wrap is going to work well with my wardrobe, which is deep but not wide. My four pairs of jeans are going to look great with it, as will my collection of black, gray and navy blue t-shirts!