Me Llamo Llama (y te amo)

It’s probably best to start this conversation with a song (please, just click the link, and don’t forget to turn up the volume).

Now that you know all about llamas, I can tell you about my knitting project.  I am knitting the infamous (on the Internet, everybody knows about it) Hemlock Ring blanket.  Adapted from a 1942 vintage lace doily pattern by (the also infamous) Jared Flood / Brooklyntweed, the blanket is made using bulky yarn and larger needles, and has many additional rows of a feather and fan pattern to increase the final size.  Jared’s beautifully photographed blanket here, his add-on chart here.

I’m knitting my blanket using pea-green baby llama yarn.  Awesome.

Hemlock Ring blanket, knit with Elsebeth Lavold's Peruvian bably llama yarn.

If you plan on joining the massive clan of Hemlock Ring blanket knitters you should know that Row 35 ends with a knit 1, contrary to the written pattern.  I did a lot of pondering over this row, before turning to the Hemlock Ring Knitalong (yep, one word) Yahoo group for clues (the issue was immediately resolved, these people know what’s up).   You should also know that I somehow ended up short a couple stitches on Row 37, or shortly after, which means either my counting got off somewhere (likely), or the pattern for an earlier row is slightly off.  I would like to blame Row 35.  Whatever the cause – which I was unable to discern even after much long division and multiplication combined – I solved the issue by making two stitches in the next row.  It’s lace, a couple more holes shouldn’t matter.