For this edition of Throwback Thursday we are looking at the Herat Snood. Knit in the super special From the Mountain – Afghan Cashmere. This pattern is ornamental and sumptuous and is a great way of honouring this equally as sumptuous yarn.
Designed by Natalie Selles this snood is a great one skein project. Natalie says of the design:
‘There’s nothing so luscious as cashmere, which means the best place for it is right next to your skin. Herat is a textured snood that makes the most of a single skein of From The Mountain Cashmere Sport for just that purpose.’
A pretty 24 row pattern repeat brings together multiple textural and shaping stitches. Knit in the round, leaf shapes tesselate together created by a combination of garter stitch, yarn overs and left leaning and right leaning decreases. Working with the natural undyed shades of this yarn this pattern repeat creates the right amount of interest. Whats more is that every last strand of this precious yarn goes into this design.
The Herat Snood gets its name from the province in Afghanistan, which is the main cashmere producing area and where this yarn is hand spun by local women. From the Mountain Afghan Cashmere is a sustainably farmed and hand spun. After decades of conflict in Afghanistan, many women are now the heads of their families, with limited socially acceptable means of providing for them. Spinning cashmere on a drop spindle for From The Mountain pays them the fairest wage for their work compared to spinning for themselves or for the carpet industry. This fair wage is an alternative to farming illegal crops such as poppies for opium and heroin and creates a more stable and sustainable livelihood for over 100 women, and also allows them to stay home and still care for their children and relatives. To read more on cashmere see our blog post introducing the yarn back in 2017.
I hope you feel inspired to give this yarn a go and the Herat Snood makes a great project to indulge in one skien. We have three gorgeous hand dyed shades to choose from.
And as usual we’re throwing in our Throwback Thursday 10% discount for the Herat Snood Kit when entering the code HERATTHROWBACK into your cart. This offer ends at midnight UK time Friday October 11th 2019.
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