Dale Garn’s new “Erle”, a heavenly kid mohair / silk / wool blend.

I had lost count of all the projects on my needles.  Sanity warned “Don’t you dare cast on one more stitch until 2015!” But, if you could just hold one soft, little cloud of Dale Garn’s new “Erle” in your hands, you’d understand why I couldn’t resist adding an Erle project to my epic list.

Mohair, silk and wool work magic together in Dale Garn’s new Erle yarn. It’s amazingly light and soft, yet surprisingly warm and stury. A delightful new luxury knitting experience!

Actually, from what I’ve seen, no one just holds Erle – they smoosh it, they pet it, they caress it.  Erle is an incredibly soft, featherweight blend of kid mohair, silk and wool.  Thanks to its diaphanous nature, just one 50g / 1 3/4 oz ball of Erle gives you a surprising 325m / 355 yds.  Amazed when they see the yardage, knitters ask me  “So what can I make with a ball of this?”  Well, lots of things!  Here’s my first idea – my Ethereal Diamonds Scarf.

Well, a scarf swatch.  It’s only a little over one foot long at this point, but I’ve only used up a tad under 10g.  Eventually, once my epic project list allows me some more time with it, I’ll have a 60″ long cloud of sweet, soft luxury to wrap around a favored neck.  In the meantime, who knows how much perfect scarf-sporting weather will come and go?!  Since I’m so pleased with my Erle scarf so far, I’ve written it up as an early little holiday treat for you. If you like simple lace scarves, I think you will be pleased with it, too.  Aside from the usual increases (yo’s) and decreases (k2tog, ssk, s2kp – all detailed in the pattern), it’s predominantly garter stitch, so it’s about as close to reversible as scarves like this get.

Those of you who are familiar with my knitting business know that pretty much everything I do is charted knitting; so, of course, this pattern centers around a chart, too.  But, I’ve included the text translation of each row of the chart, too.  If  you haven’t tried charted knitting yet, I’m hoping this will be just the perfect little bridge for you to cross on your way to charted knitting bliss.

(Yes, of course you can use this pattern with all sorts of yarn, in all sorts of fibers.  But if you want something exquisite, give “Erle” a try.)

Click this link to download the PDF: Ethereal Diamonds, a free knitting pattern for a lace scarf

Visit my online yarn shop for Erle and countless other goodies from Dale of Norway / Dale Garn.

Happy knitting!