A Peek at Pebble.

If you spend anytime on-line - or (better yet!) if you've visited the shop in the past few weeks, you probably already know about Pebble. It's  is the newest yarn from Shibui and I've been waiting to tell y'all about it until I had time to really work with it myself.

**drumroll**

it's awesome! (and oh my, I've just spent a few minutes hours! looking at Ravelry to grab more inspiration ideas...and I'm even more in love with it now).

Pebble is a blend of recycled silk, extra fine merino and cashmere (48%/36%/16% if you're keeping score), Shibui lists it as a "heavy laceweight" at 224 yards/25 grams and a suggested gauge of 26 st/4 inches on size 3 needles. To me, that gauge says "light sport/heavy fingering". I swatched it on US 4s and got 23 st/31 rows to 4 inches. 

my swatch in the trail colorway

And that made me very happy because that's the listed gauge for Relax (which I've had in my favorites since I saw it knit in Shibui Cima). When I first knit and blocked the swatch I thought the gauge was too open; but my daughter - who's the planned recipient of the sweater  - said no. The wide neckline means she'll wear a camisole (at least) under it anyway and it's oversized...so lightweight is good. I'm halfway up the front (yes, this sweater is knit in pieces and no, I don't have issues with that!) and yes, I think she's right! stay tuned!

Of course an oversized sweater on size 4 needles might be more ... knitting/yarn/work... than you want. 

How about a colorwork hat (the pattern is free)? This is Cliff...yes it's a lot of yarn (5 colors = 5 skeins) but it's knit double stranded. I promise it won't seem like laceweight yarn! I love the colors in fiddlehead's version.

photo copyright Shibui

Or a very cool textured/shaped hat...with a matching asymmetrical scarf?  This is Peak. It looks fabulous knit double stranded in a single color, but I love the marled effect of mixing two colors.

photos copyright Shibui

I hope you'll give it try - and if you do, please share your project...on Ravelry, Facebook or Twitter.

Happy Knitting!

sorry, couldn't resist one more photo!