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!
The design is gorgeous, and so are your sweaters. I own the original edition of Aran Knitting, but this design is calling to me– I may have to cave and buy the new edition to get this pattern.
Comment by Gretchen — November 13, 2010 @ 12:54 pm
Oh, they’re both fabulous!
Comment by Cheryl S. — November 13, 2010 @ 1:20 pm
As usual, beautiful knitting. But what I really wanted to say —-please tell your husband,…Susan’s, I think, what a beautiful deck he built. I love the metalwork / wood mix. It looks like he is a stickler for perfection, too!
Comment by Susan Duncan — November 13, 2010 @ 1:22 pm
Very pretty sweaters. The colors are beautiful, too.
It looks like they’ll be needed. Stay warm and safe.
Comment by Deb in PA — November 13, 2010 @ 2:03 pm
G.O.R.G.E.O.U.S.
Comment by LISA — November 13, 2010 @ 3:11 pm
Breathtakingly beautiful sweaters. I hope it is a LONG while before the snow comes to my neighborhood!
Comment by Kim — November 14, 2010 @ 1:08 am
Those cardigans look wonderful. Re wearability: I saw Alice Starmore wearing hers at the class I attended in London. It was very close-fitting, but looked great. However she did say how warm she was wearing it indoors, even with only a light layer under it. I guess it depends how hot you run normally.
Comment by shandy — November 14, 2010 @ 5:59 am
The sweaters are beyond gorgeous. E.B. is not even on my would-like-to-add-to-the-queue, as it’s sooooo complicated I would lose my mind. More to the point, it doesn’t fit my body, which, er, goes out where it’s supposed to go in, and the parts that are supposed to go out have mismatched scars instead. But it’s a lovely, lovely design.
Ditto the kudos to John. The design of the deck is just as – maybe even more so – delightful under snow as under leaves.
Comment by Suzan — November 14, 2010 @ 9:15 am
They’re lovely!! What a great work of wearable art. Could I maybe knit a Barbie-sized one? Just to practice? I could probably finish it that size. I love both of the colors, too. You two are amazing!
Comment by Lisle — November 14, 2010 @ 10:22 am
P.S. to Suzan…My mom has what she calls Knitty Titties. Would that work for you? Here’s the link.
http://knitty.com/ISSUEfall05/PATTbits.html
Comment by Lisle — November 14, 2010 @ 10:25 am
They are both breathtaking sweaters. And the white stuff will happen sooner or later here. The forecast for here is for snow all week. You will probably see some of this weather system next week. Maybe the snow part of it will decide to stay here in Alberta!
Comment by Needles — November 15, 2010 @ 10:35 am
@Lisle: yep, I have my knittytitties/knittedknockers/titbits, out of lovely, soft, handspun alpaca (thanks, Tova!). I dunno, maybe it’s the way I move, but even properly weighted — and even pinned to undergarments! — the things slither around and one ends up near my earlobe whilst the other slides under the band. ROTFL is all ya can do! That, and go unselfconsciously unsprung. Now if there were only some way to knit my bod a new waist worthy of Eala Bahn …..
Oh, and Sally — I’m not normally a pink kind of person, but WHEW! that raspberry is lusciously swoon-worthy!
Comment by Suzan — November 15, 2010 @ 1:22 pm
PS: Thanks for link anyhow, Lisle.
Comment by Suzan — November 15, 2010 @ 1:22 pm
It would be great to see both sweaters finished and modeled by each sister/knitter side by side (through the magic of the Internet)once they are done. Both those colors are so beautiful that together they would bedazzle us all. Please?
Comment by Chloe — November 15, 2010 @ 8:12 pm
Stop it right now. You are inciting me to add yet another project to my needles. I won’t have it, I tell you!
(But I will keep checking your blog for updates on yours!)
Comment by twinsetellen — November 16, 2010 @ 12:10 am
Absolutely lovely! When my Aran Knitting arrived, I knew EB would be the first project to knit. Haven’t ordered the yarn yet so was glad to read your opinion. Will definitely go with Alice’s yarn now. Thanks. BTW – they are forecasting snow here in Central Illinois tomorrow night. Can hardly wait!!!!
Comment by Janis Straesser — November 16, 2010 @ 6:25 pm
Wow. Sooooooooooo Gorgeous!!!!
Comment by Romi — November 17, 2010 @ 1:53 am
Wow! I haven’t been around to visit my favorite blogs lately, so the progress here is stunning (to me anyway!) They are both turning out beautifully!
Comment by twinsetjan — November 28, 2010 @ 4:43 pm