Knitting Lace with Chunky Alpaca Yarn

Admittedly, to a sock yarn lover the above might not sound particularly intriguing. As a sock yarn connoisseur myself, I have to admit that the idea of knitting simple lace with a chunky alpaca / wool blend did not seem appealing. Nevertheless, in the interest of reducing the size of my yarn stash, I decided to embark on this adventure some time in late 2014. 

Winter Stole in Progress (Yarn: Wendy Zena)

Winter Stole in Progress (Yarn: Wendy Zena)

The yarn, Wendy Zena Alpaca, belongs to one of my first yarn acquisitions and it was a relatively disappointing experience for an absolute beginner. From my first project with Zena, I recall that stitch definition was an issue. The definition I managed to achieve was appalling and if you knit too tightly (and a lot of beginner knitters tend to knit too tightly), it's almost impossible to correct mistakes when ripping back. Zena's properties are in many ways very similar to mohair. Chunky mohair, to be precise.  All in all, it's is not a yarn I would recommend to beginners. But, precisely its mohair-like properties made me wonder whether it might be a suited to a lace project.

To achieve a good stitch definition, I decided to knit my stole on 6mm needles. And to knit loosely! For now, I would say the effort seems to have paid off. The written pattern for the stole will be available on the blog by the end of January.

Update: The pattern is now available here.