Russian Fudge Arbutus

Have you ever made Russian Fudge? If you're from New Zealand you may have. You've probably tasted it at least. Russian Fudge is the Myrtle family's go to recipe for teachers' gifts. It includes condensed milk and cooks to the colour of, well, the colour of my Arbutus cowl. It's my favourite flavour of fudge, by a long shot.

I'm very pleased with my Russian Fudge coloured cowl.  And, thanks to the very lovely Georgie Hallam aka Tikki on Ravelry, I have now become acquainted with quite possibly the best short rows I have ever come across. After my recent rather dismal short rows Georgie dropped me a line telling me about German short rows. (Have you come across Georgie? Remember I recently knitted a couple of her very pretty patterns for my girls? If you're interested you can find them here and here.) Well, after all that designing, I felt sure Georgie knew what she was talking about. So, when Georgie said "try German short rows", I set out to try them.

Arbutus is full of short rows and I've read several comments about people getting unseemly holes with the wrap and turn method suggested. I thought I'd try Georgie's suggestion, found a couple of very good youtube videos (here and here) demonstrating German short rows, and had a go. FANTASTIC! But look, you can see for yourself ...

Pretty good huh! You can see where I've turned my knitting and knitted extra knit rows around the front loops in between the purl ridges - there's a sort of line running down the left side of the looped pieces. But no gigantic holes. It's very neat.

I've since used them on my Flowing Lines sweater, to shape the shoulder caps, and they're great for that too. Go on, try them!

In case you're wondering, my Arbutus is knitted in squidgy Mirasol Tuhu yarn, colourway number 2007, which I'm calling "Russian Fudge". It's 50% baby lama, 40% merino, 10% angora blend, hence the halo. Although a DK weight yarn, it's knitted on 5mm needles (US9) so the fabric has a ton of spring and drapes beautifully. It's great on ... you'll see soon :)

You can find my Russian Fudge Arbutus on Raverly here.