Toft's Lace Snood

At Christmas I was very fortunate to receive a Toft Alpaca lace snood knitting kit. Needless to say I was eager to get started and, after knitting whilst watching lots of episodes of EastEnders (which, may I say has improved greatly with the introduction of Danny Dyer and his on screen family) I finished it a couple of days ago.

Nik Kershaw's snood

The lace stitch was new to me and it took me about an hour of practicing and ripping back before I'd learnt it. The five to ten hours that Toft estimates it takes to knit is pretty spot on - I certainly got faster as I joined the second ball of yarn.

It's light yet incredibly warm to wear and is one to put on both outdoors and in the house when trying not to turn the heating up!

One point that made me chuckle is the word 'snood'. Growing up in the 1980s, when snoods were briefly fashionable, they were long tubes of fabric à la Nik Kershaw in his Human Racing days.

Thankfully the 2014 version of a snood is much more attractive and Toft's lace snood certainly hits the spot. Toft Alpaca, in Warwickshire, England, is only 20 minutes drive away from me and I'm a big fan of its quality yarns, friendly staff and kooky animals!