Recognise the yarn, Bryony?

Bryony awarded me 200g of Rowan Cork for recognising something obscure about Vic & Bob.

It's Ivy colourway and I first planned to make something for DD whose middle name is Ivy (after her great grandmother). However, 4 year olds and handwash-only merino rarely mix successfully so instead I knit myself this bolero/shrug to celebrate Project Spectrum's month of green.

Cork is discontinued now and I can sort of see why, it's a very unforgiving yarn made of a stretched tube rather than spun normally. If you dare to put it down in the middle of a row it makes a big gap between stitches. Any stitch except stocking stitch looked like I was making fishing nets.

But it's a shame it's gone: the stocking stitch looks lovely and I've never come across another yarn that knits up quick on 8mm needles but doesn't create a bulky garment (if anyone knows of others - tell me, please!).

The pattern started off as Knitscene's sideways ribs... but I thought I'd make it with short sleeves and shorter as I didn't have much yarn (although I only used about 100g in the end)... then nixed the ribbing and knit it all in stocking stitch... then wanted to give it a little more structure to hold a heavy brooch I'd bought so added binding round the edge (which took ages to sew, but I like the end result).


The shape of the brooch reminds me of the 'happy' shapes on Terry Frost's painting.