My sister-in-law, L, gave me some wonderful wool/alpaca yarn for my birthday last March from this great shop in London (gosh, I wish I had a shop like that up the road). With all my other projects it’s taken awhile to get to the yarn. I wanted to make a garment that I haven’t got yet, and this cowl/capelet/poncho in alpaca would keep my top half extra warm on these cool days.

I learned a new stitch (slip stitch smocking), practised a new way to cast on and off (tubular provisional method), and got a good looking garment at the same time.

It’s certainly very warm for its weight. It would be a good piece to take on future urban travels into colder climes.