Lush La Lana

Lucky for me, my mum knows how to take a hint. After I mentioned to her, months ago, that I was involved in the Stitch Ya Neck Out swap, she went and purchased Scarf Style for herself. A few weeks later we were chatting about which patterns we most liked from the book and I dropped a few Very Subtle Hints about Lady Eleanor, commenting Even More Subtly that, of course, that is a pattern which deserves to be made in the yarn that's called for. Naturally, I had an inkling that the wool called for, La Lana Forever Random was made in a town not so far from my mum's home. Imagine my gleeful surprise (well, not really surprise, my mum had been hinting back to me that my wishes were going to be fulfilled To The Letter) when I opened my birthday present last week to discover 15 skeins of the most lovely La Lana hand-spun and plant-dyed wool for making Lady Eleanor...
My mum is a smart cookie so she made me absolutely swear that I would not give this away once I'd finished it. (This knitter doesn't fall far from the proverbial tree.) I couldn't wait to get started so I cast on with the only 6.5mm needles I had available, some snazzy plastic red numbers I picked up from some op shop or other. Even only a fraction of the way into it, I can tell that I'm going to have to switch to circs because the weight of the work is already so heavy it limits the amount of time I can spend on it. But for now the red needles contrast nicely with the green yarn.
Taking some hints from various brainy bloggers I've seen, I decided to learn to knit and purl backwards so I wouldn't have to constantly turn the work, since the entrelac is worked only 8 stitches at a time. The new method takes some getting used to but is proving to be a very handy skill. It also provides some dexterity exercises for my less-than-dextrous left hand (also leading to the tiredness factor mentioned above).
Pictured is a closeup so you can take in the delicious subtle variegations in the yarn. Although La Lana warns potential purchasers that the wool is actually darker than the pictured object in Scarf Style, my mum decided to go with it because she liked the deep green. I think she chose very well indeed.