Lady Eleanor

Pattern: Lady Eleanor from Scarf Style
Needles: Size 9 straights
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden, Colorway 292, 7.5 skeins used
Mods: substituted yarn and needles
Measurements: 17" wide, 68" long, not counting fringe

I finished my Lady Eleanor and she is beautiful. This was my first entralac project. I realized really early on that learning to knit (or, rather purl) backwards was going to be very helpful. It was easy and I employed it for the entire project. After knitting 35 tiers I was completely done with the entrelac for a while but I'm really glad that I have this technique now. Once I figured out the entralac, this project flew by. The Silk Garden is absolutely beautiful and I am still enchanted by the colors. As I was knitting I just kept watching for the next color and the next color and the next color. I still have 2.5 skeins left and I hope to use them for something beautiful. Maybe the window pane scarf from the Winter IK?

I'm very excited about getting to wear this wrap out somewhere, preferably somewhere fancy. I'm thinking that this would look smashing with just about anything, but especially a strappy purple dress. The other thing I love about this project is that I really think that the entrelac shows off the variegated yarn to it's best advantage. Noro blends the colors together in such a beautiful way that the yarn really should be allowed to shine and this pattern lets that happen.

On the fringe: it takes more yarn than you think it will and it takes more time than you think it will. I used about a skein of yarn and probably 2 to 3 hours to apply the fringe and then knot it. I absolutely love the result though. In fact, the knotted fringe is one of the reasons that I was drawn to this pattern in the first place. Personally, I would not love my Lady Eleanor the way I do if it weren't knotted. But to each his own.