Whatever happens to strike my fancy, but surely some sort of fiber content.
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| Like The Queen Whatever happens to strike my fancy, but surely some sort of fiber content. |
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2 Comments:
I've been very tempted to join the Hunt Valley Cashmere GAAA club, but worried about either buying all that cashmere at once ($cha-ching!) or having the last batch's color be noticeably different from the first batch's color received 2 years prior. They probably have some way to guard against that -- who knows?
ok i got that book too Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom] Monday, December 31, 2007 Closing out the old year with a knitting post Oh my – here it is December 31 at last. It's a white sky day here at TheCastle, all seamed with bare bark trees and carpeted with their fallen leaves. It's a calm looking day, an indoor day, a peaceful looking day. It is a good day for reflection should one feel that hunger, or for frittering, should the mind need more of a rest. I'm not yet sure how I shall spend this soft day of mine, but I am sure there shall be some knitting involved, for I have made yarn decisions and discoveries since yesterday. First off – that Austerman Merino Stretch. It's a no-go. I wet set that nice big swatch and then began to rough it up a wee bit, rubbing it against itself. Almost immediately it began to fuzz. I could see tiny fibers haloing around the yarn – future pills or even worse, future thin spots. M asks how much does a sweater wear and I will tell you – it wears out under the arms and along the sides, where the two pieces brush against each other and it wears out on the shoulder if you cary your purse that way. If a yarn is cashmere – high end cashmere, or angora – I am willing to put up with pills or halos, though pills on my sides are never going to be flattering. When it's acrylic blend – I'm not so forgiving. Especially if I put my heart into something textured like the swatch I knit. So. Merino Stretch is relegated to scarf&hat yarn and I shall find something else, something better, for my sweater body. Maybe 1812 or even Cascade. And yes, Marge, the photo certainly looks Ali McGraw-ish – the model and her 70's hairdo. I never intended to actually knit that sweater – Just something with those wrist and hem patterns in colorwork and a sweater body in texture. I'll probably do my regular knitted in set in sleeves for this project. I very much want to knit myself a sweater though, so I'll have to dig through my stash and discover what magical yarn is hidden away. I want a fast, easy sweater with just a little fancy detail. I have some blue faced Leicester in a deep green which might be just the trick. I am ALSO working on the GreatAmericanAranAfghanInCashmereYarn. Hmmm. What shall I call it? GAAA? I believe there is a KAL for it called something like that. Anyway – I finally wound up the yarn and cast on. I picked Ginette Bellinger's square  because it was easy and I have never knit with cashmere before – at least not 100% cashmere. Wow. It's a different sort of knitting. There's no spring in cashmere – it's like silk that way. It doesn't bounce back and fill in the gaps when I perform any twisty stitches. Note how there are spaces between the purl three together stitches on both sides.  But it's very soft, so it's like angora or even dog fur. It's a sensual pleasure to hold this yarn and I suspect I'll come to understand its properties at some basic physical level, the more I knit with it. It's also very white so I'm all the time washing my hands as I work with it. This is my first square and I am not going to hold myself to it if I don't end up liking it. If the whole square looks too loose I'll go down a needle. I'm using #6 addi lace tips right now – though I would rather have used a #5. I just can't find any #5 needles. Wonder what UFO they're lodged in. I will say, this is a pleasing square to knit. I like the cluster stitch, I know it would be fabulous in springy wool – a real Aran sweater someday, maybe? The pattern is a 24 row repeat, done 3 times. I'm half way through the first repeat. Let us see how far I get today. May you all have a safe happy new year's eve, snuggled close to your favorites. |
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