theraineysisters knitting and so much more

Thanks for asking, Suzan!  The White Swan has landed!  My Eala Bhan.  I finished her about a month ago, but needed the post to marinate a while! 

Eala Bhan was another of my “quest” projects.  A project that you see and are drawn to immediately, with an “I-must-make-that” fervor.   Surly and I ordered the yarn (Hebridean 2-Ply from  Virtual Yarns, my color: Lapwing) as soon as we received our books (the newly republished Aran Knitting by Alice Starmore).  I was in such a hurry to start, I insisted that Mairi of Virtual Yarns mail the yarn to Sally’s house so I would not miss a day (I was visiting her at the time). 

That was the easy part!  I decided to knit the fronts and back as one piece to avoid reverse stockinette seaming.  Thus, with fair isle weight yarn and small needles, I had hundreds of sts at the start.  It was like Eala Bhan and the Three Bears!!  The first attempt was too big, the second too small, and the third was just right…lots of casting on (with an elaborate scalloped cast on) and lots of ripping.

As we know, I am not the smallest cherub in the choir, so I was making the largest size.  I also lost my waist in the great “Eat Out” of the mid 90’s, so the extreme waist shaping of Eala Bhan (~12 inches are reduced at the waist!) was a no go for this fatty knitter.   I only took out 4-6 inches at the waist — letting just the reduction in stitches from the large cables into the smaller cables do the shaping.  I also made many other minor modifications, too numerous to describe or remember!

Eala Bhan requires a fair amount of finishing work due to the construction and button bands.  The buttons called for are quite small, which made them difficult to find.  As most knitters know, finding the right buttons is sometimes the hardest part of the project!  I wanted metal buttons, very detailed, in a bronze color, with a shank — a shank button is easier to sew onto a sweater and the thread does not show.   

Again, it was Eala Bhan and The Three Buttons!   The first ones I found were beautifully detailed, in a bronze finish, BUT they had no shank and were PLASTIC (ugh).  The second ones were still plastic, garish gold, but at least they had a shank.  I stumbled across the third ones by accident: bronze, detailed, metal and a shank (see PS 5 below for details)!  Yay!

So, here is my Eala Bhan, at long last:

This captures the color in the sunlight perfectly

Button Detail

After blocking, the fit is perfect.  The sleeves flare over my hand at just the right spot.  The hint of a waist gives me the hint of a waist.  The length is perfect.  The yarn softened to buttery perfection.  I love this sweater.

Grade: A

Pattern: B (very long, complex, and needed tweaking — but a gorgeous concept)
Yarn: A
Fit: A+

Today we leave for the American Birkebeiner Ski Race.  John turned 60 on Tuesday and is hoping for one of his best Birkies.  I am hoping to not miss him at the finish line, which happened the last two years.    It’s my only job and I blew it!!  It is supposed to be VERY cold, too.    Then on Sunday I get to watch Colin Firth receive his Oscar…wow!  Great weekend!

PS1 to Diana: “And if I had the power I would have Colin present you with your award.”  I would actually pass out if I ever saw him in person!

PS2 to Leigh: I did all the cabling without a cable needle: every RS row you are moving sts and I would have gone stark raving mad if I was juggling a cable needle.

PS3: I am in Hayward (free WiFi — yay!).  John finished his 28th Birkie but it was a very hard ski for him.  The last half was a slog!  Just like some knitting projects I know!  Thanks for all of the extremely kind comments about EB.

PS4: Colin won!  Yay!

PS5: To Amber — where did I find my buttons?  I bought them at Hancock Fabrics.  They are JHB Buttons # 93287, 1/2 inch (scroll down and you will see them).  Three buttons for $3.10.

We have not written much about our respective Eala Bhans. Early on, we kind of made a pact that we would knit this project in tandem and not post individually, on the off chance that one of us would speed ahead of the other. In reality, of course we knit at different paces: we have different amounts of time to spend, life and work and other projects intervene. But right now we are pretty darn close to each other, so we will post!  (Note from Sally:  No, we are not all that close.  Susan is waaaaaay ahead of me.  But that’s fine.)

The Yarn
The yarn is lovely.  The feel of it, the wooliness of it, the depth of the color.  It gets an A+!

When you take colorwork classes from Alice St@rmore, she presents you with a small white box which holds a sample of every yarn color.  Of course, her color cards are required to identify the name of the color in question:

The Pattern
The Eala Bhan pattern is crazy detailed.  For the collar, Susan had to move between three pieces of paper to track every row!  It is easy to see that the sheer magnitude of pattern itself could turn off many knitters.  But it is also very beautiful.  Sally thinks it might be too dressy to wear often, but Susan thinks it will be a great work sweater.

Progress
We knit the fronts and back in one piece, knowing full well that this would be a slow go.  What we did NOT anticipate was how slow the back would be once you made the split at the armholes!  We thought we would breeze along after leaving the fronts behind, but it felt even slower!  The fronts themselves were speedy quick.

Susan’s Eala Bhan Blocking


The collar

Susan is ready to start knitting the sleeves.

From Sally:  I am  NOT ready to start knitting the sleeves.  I have finished one front.  Mine is not yet blocked, and I hope it looks as nice as Susan’s does after the blocking.  Here are a couple of my slower progress pictures.

Sally’s Eala Bhan before the split for the arms (the color is very true here)

Sally’s Eala Bhan with just the left front finished (unblocked)

Weather
And here is what Susan woke up to this morning: snow-flavored rain!