A Medieval Collar with a Modern Twist

My last post suggested that I was going to be working on a corset. Well, I am, but I have to spin the yarn. I decided that I wanted to first try to knit a collar using one of the patterns that I bought. It is a smaller project, so can be finished quickly. Above are the two colors that I debated spinning. The pure mohair on the left was a little too pale, since I was aiming for elegant - so I went with the same mohair blended with Merino.

I decided that the main portion of the collar needed to have a textured yarn to duplicate the impression that I got from the pattern cover. It had a floral motif and I thought the coils would capture the effect.

This is what the pattern calls the front. I changed the size as I knitted, because I thought it looked too small and the neck hole was a lot tighter than one I would wear. I had exactly 100 yards of the coiled yarn and pretty much knitted the back until I ran out of yarn. I have 9 inches left.

This is the back of the collar, but I decided that it is more fun to have something that can be worn more than one way. As I started knitting the back, I realized that I could modify the pattern and it work out nicely.

I picked up stitches along the bottom edge and I am now knitting a ruffle. I have 720 stitches on my needle right now. It is taking an eternity to knit/purl from one end to the other and I have broken my rule of never stopping in the middle of a row. It is taking almost 45 minutes to knit one row! Unreal.

I will be adding something to the top of the neck edge. I have mentally designed it, but will wait till I have actually added it before saying what it will be. I tend to improvise and what I am planning tonight might not be what I do tomorrow.

The corset is going to be shades of blue with the softest kid mohair and a little Merino. It will also feature coiled yarn.

The bunnies are enjoying being inside. The does are fighting over the little box. I am not sure what they do during the night, but they are pretty tidy during the day. I come back to a mess in the morning that fills my Ironman twice and takes an hour to clean up.

Tomorrow I am going to start my day earlier trying to beat the heat. I have two goats to shear and a few to move around. Baby season is over and rutting season is already here!

By the way, we have officially lived in our house 9 years as of today. The longest I had ever lived anywhere before was in North Carolina - 5 1/2 years. I plan to post aerial photos tomorrow showing what the place looked like shortly after we bought it and how it looked last November when the last photo was taken. Lots of changes and more are on the way, since the haybarn is gone and will be replaced by a barn in the arena sometime in September.