Handspun Hope’s Wild Borocera Silk now comes in five colors that are not only spun but also dyed in Madagascar, using natural ingredients, some of them only to be found in Madagascar. (I’ve never seen a naturally dyed black like this before!)

It has been a delight to use four of those new colors to make Martha Wissing’s Holtin. I made the the short sleeved, cropped version.

MY Holtin WILL BE ON DISPLAY AT THE Handspun Hope BOOTH DURING THE DFW Fiber Fest 2024.

A few comments about working with this silk:

• Make sure that you read the notes that Handspun Hope provides in the item description on their website … variation in color, imperfections, and thick-and-thin nature are very well described.
• Swatch and block! Generously! Experiencing working with this yarn on a small sample is crucial (and fun). My swatch (see pictures) was 30 sts x 34 rows before binding off.
• Use smaller needle sizes than you normally would do. The yarn has very little give when you work with it, and it will slightly get bigger when you wash it (it’s silk!). I reduced my needle sizes until I got close to the gauge of the pattern. I knit loosely and continental … if you are an average knitter you will probably use US 2.5 (3mm) and US 4 (3.5mm) or one size up from that.
• The character of the fabric is different than your typical woolen … even though the final measurements match the pattern, the silky drape is different (more drapy). Consider to knit one size smaller than usual.

A few comments about the pattern:

• Martha’s Holtin is an absolute delight to knit, and I’ll definitely will make at least one more.
• As intricate as the yoke looks, it’s easy to work. Martha provides written and charted instructions (I’m a chart gal).
• After the yoke, I started using two skeins of the main color and switched skeins after each round for best color distribution (good advise for any hand-dyed yarn). I did not switch skeins for the yoke because there are enough color changes that it would not matter.
• I added about 1.5” to the body length for a less-cropped-but-still-not-full length.