The Foliage wrap (by Anne Thompson). If you saw my previous post about this, you'll remember that I received some Crazy Sexy Wool from Wool and the Gang to try out in one of my projects. Since I already have an abundance of scarves and cowls, I decided to do something a little different with it and found this pattern on Ravelry. I had a little less yardage than the pattern called for, however, so I made some modifications on the number of rows which was made up by the larger gauge, in measurements. Before blocking I wasn't really sure how it would turn out, but it flattened nicely and spread out a little for a fit with a little more ease (though not much more).

The belt is what makes it work. This is a pretty bulky knit, and drawing the garment in at the waist gives it a bit of a peplum look, in my opinion. I like it with the black pants, but it could easily be paired with a dress as well. The pattern page shows it worn upside down, with the leaf edging as the collar. I didn't notice that until just now or I may have tried it that way for some of the photos as well, but I'm curious about it now-- on the next wear, definitely.

Since I normally work in pretty small gauge, this is by far the bulkiest piece I have made to date (aside from accessories). The speed is a nice change from what I'm used to - talk about instant gratification! It may have taken a while to get some final photos of the project, but this was finished within days of the previous post.

What gauge do you knitters prefer working with? Are chunky knits your thing, or do you get wrapped up in tiny gauges like myself? I might have been won over to projects like this one, just every once in a while...

To be fully honest, the blogs that I follow are a little heavier on design than they are on knitting. While I love knitting (obviously), I find that the hip curation of fashion/lifestyle/home decor by design bloggers piques my interest a little more strongly. Furthermore, when their posts come full circle to tie in knitting or nature (my other obvious interest), I'm all the more intrigued and energized by it. Thus, my feelings about Wool and the Gang. I first came across this company a couple of years back through one of the aforementioned blogs and really dug their crisp, minimalistic, modern aesthetic. Upon looking into them a little further, I discovered their focus on quality, sustainable craftsmanship in fashion, and an emphasis on sustainable and recycled yarns. WATG designs simple knitting patterns that may be purchased as kits or separately as yarn and pattern to encourage handmade fashion… and if you're not a knitter you can buy the garments hand made by one of the WATG makers. Pretty basic, huh? Basic, but personal, and with beautiful products to boot.

When WATG reached out about getting some of their yarn into my hands to try out, I was clearly all about it. A week later, I had two balls of Crazy Sexy Wool in my possession, in the Magic Mint colorway. When I think of mint green, I picture… well, the walls in my study, because that's one of our colors of choice when it comes to home ambiance. Rather than the sherbet green, this shade of the yarn is more of a cool, minty blue. I can almost smell peppermint when I look at it… or maybe that's just my essential oil diffuser. No matter. Color often drives my instincts when it comes to yarn selection, so when I opened the package the day it arrived I was instantly drawn to the vibrancy of the hue.

When I reached in to grasp the yarn, an involuntary sigh definitely happened as my hand melted into the softness. This is some seriously soft yarn. Super bulky, too - probably one of the bulkier yarns that I have worked with. I'm also a sucker for single-ply yarns. Whether it's the case or not, I always feel like I'm knitting with handspun yarn when I work with single-ply. With some single-ply yarns the fiber will pull and break apart in the middle of a project, but I had no such experience with this yarn. It's just as taut and strong as a plied one.

As someone with an abundance of cowls and oversized scarves, I decided I wanted to try something a little different with this 100% Peruvian wool. Since I normally work with a pretty small gauge it was a difficult decision, but I finally settled on a variation of the Foliage Wrap by Anne Thompson, a vest with a large leaf edging around the bottom. Given my lack of experience with bulky non-accessory garments, this may or may not be the final form of the yarn. If I don't like the project after it's blocked, I may frog it and go for a hat instead. No tears lost over a little more time with this chunky goodness.

Each ball of Crazy Sexy Wool has 87 yards, and I must say that I am impressed at how far one ball of the yarn takes you - much farther than I expected. The vest is nearly done, so expect photos of it soon, or, you know, photos of some other mystery garment if I decide in the end that the pattern doesn't work for me after all. Another bonus: working with US 19 needles goes a lot faster than US 3.

Wool and the Gang provided the yarn for this review, but all words and opinions are my own.