There are those among you (you know who you are) who looked at my photography and read about my experiences on our North Ontario road trip – Lake Superior, Highway 11 and all the rest – and only thought ‘ok… but what did you knit in all that car time?’. Here then, for the fiberphiles is what I worked on.

I knitted Jared Flood’s Guernsey Wrap for Tito. Looks nice, right? Good stitch definition, nice colour. It looks like it should have worked out, but alas, I’m not that happy with it. I’m going to be honest here and admit that I hate the yarn.

I bought it on Manitoulin Island, at a general store that had a corner dedicated to crafts. It’s Patons Decor, 75% acrylic and 25% wool. It’s stiff, and in the way of acrylic, a good solid blocking doesn’t do much for it. However, the yarn I had traveled with I hated even more… it was fuzzy and the stitch definition was terrible and I don’t know what possessed me, so I ended up going with a purchase from an extremely limited selection of which this seemed the least unpleasant. Serve me right.

Tito (what a sport) says he loves it, and it looks pretty darn good on him, it ended up at an impressive 80 x 13.5 inches and it weathered the trip well, having been knitted all over creation with the trucks cup holder serving as my yarn bowl.

I’m currently making him a matched hat (in Sweet Geogia this time) using the pattern ‘Dustland Hat’ by Stephen West. Has anyone else noticed how similar the two are? The geometrical patterns used to give texture are almost identical. I don’t know which came first but it seems like a crazy coincidence.

Clearly I’ve been spoiled by wools and merinos and alpaca silk blends… the return to acrylic was painful! For what it’s worth though I adore the wrap pattern (and the hat pattern) and will certainly make another one. Ravelry Project Page here.