New for spring... introducing Laccio!

I'm no doubt committing a great offence to Italian grammar by adding that exclamation mark, but it's a name and that's my excuse. Laccio is Italian for Lasso, and from what I can gather the verb of the word doesn't follow the same rules in English and so I broke the rules and went this way. When it comes to names the rules are meant to be broken, right?

Laccio! is obviously a play on words - firstly, the way the yarn is slipped and wrapped around a group of stitches to create the pattern - the yarn is literally the lasso. It's a relatively simple yet unusual stitch pattern and I discovered it last year when I was thoroughly down my textured stitch pattern rabbit-hole.

But it isn't just about the action of the yarn - the yarn itself is dyed by Cowgirlblues, an indie dyer from South Africa, and it was hard to not the Hat this name! I met this dyer at h&h in Cologne this time last year and it was lovely to see her yarns in the flesh. This pattern calls for a skein of Aran Singles, which is a luscious blend of wool and kid mohair. It has such lustre.

The Laccio! pattern comes in 4 sizes, 17in through to 23in, and comes with all the techniques covered by the illustrated tutorials. The instructions are written only; it was hard to chart this stitch pattern and given it's simplicity, I made the decision to not include a chart.

The photos feature Josie, modelling against one of the darkest (and one of my favourite) murals from the Vertigo Truth project on site. I think the background sets the colours in the yarn off perfectly. It's also got that wonderful wintery moody tone, and you wouldn't know these photos were taken during the baking hot summer!

This is probably my last premium pattern for this season. I'm resting my shoulders for now, and then plan to dive head-first into new projects for the autumn. There will still be some freebies and special offers going through The Woolly Hat Society, so do keep an eye on your inbox, or sign up if you haven't already.

And that's it for today!

I'm still struggling to blog, as it means I need to sit at the PC and my shoulders are none to happy about that. Since we got back from India my left shoulder has deteriorated rapidly. After 10 months of hinting at freezing then doing nothing, it's absolutely gone for it in the last 2 months and it's incredibly painful. I start acupuncture this week, which totally sorted out the nerve pain in my right shoulder at a similar point, and I'm hoping that should be the turn I need to start on the path to recovery. Having both shoulders frozen at the same time is not something I'd wish on anyone, but I'm kinda glad to be getting it out of the way and looking forward to exercise, warm weather and a slow return to (near) normal movement.

Also, with any luck, the SquareSpace will start to work properly again and I can share more than update and release notices in this space!