Multiple posts in a week & Sensual Knits

In what must be a first for me, this is my third post this week. I guess that's what happens when knits that I've had to hold my tongue about for so long are finally released out into the world.

Yahaira's book, Sensual Knits, was released unexpectedly early last week. I have two contributions in this book, a lace camisole and its matching cardigan. For some reason, the book only shows the two pieces worn together:


This makes me sad because I was quite pleased with the side lace panels on the camisole. Here's a bad photograph of it here. I shot this on self timer, in February, indoors. Okay, enough excuses!

And here I'm wearing it with the cardigan:


The yarn we ended up using for this was Blue Sky's Royal Alpaca. Those who know me know that I'm pretty sensitive to fibers (cruel irony for an avid knitter) and alpaca especially is usually too scratchy for me. But I had no problems with the Royal Alpaca. It's really something else. As Clara Parkes writes in her great reference, The Knitter's Book of Yarn, royal alpaca is "the cream of the alpaca fiber crop".

This twinset was my third design, a couple of months into my long break from academia and pursuit of my knitwear ambitions. Through this book, I met a lot of great people, some of whom I've gotten to know in real life too. :)