Monday, September 24, 2007



I’ve finished. The stash is in Ravelry.

The final bin yielded this gem, which may be eligible for some sort of prize. We bought it 50 years ago, when we were expecting our first child. My husband intended to knit her a garter-stitch blankie. As you can see, he never even cast it on. As you can also see, since it’s partly in its original wrapping, in those days stores wrapped things up in paper for you, and tied the parcel with string.



It came from an excellent Scottish chain called John Smith. I could show you still where their shop was in Edinburgh.

Sorting through stash has yielded two bags-full of yarn for the good ladies of Alyth to knit. I haven’t bothered counting, since it’s going straight out.

Rabbitch is now in Ravelry. Pretty soon we’ll be able to pull up the gangplank and live happily ever after in our virtual world.



Comments -- and the future

Kate, it’s great to hear from you. Tilly is gorgeous, worth all the trouble. Does she smile at you yet? That’s a wonderful thing. Knitting with three strands of Shetland jumper-weight would indeed produce something unsuitable for most sub-arctic climates. What a thought! Candace Strick's big idea for her Merging Colors was to keep the individual yarns very fine. Lots of winding!

Helen and Beadslut, thanks for the help with Rowan. Presumably you mean that I could look at all the colours of Kidsilk Haze on-line? Never occurred to me! What I need to do now, however, for I fear I’ll be going ahead with this, is to decide which three colours I need to complement what I’ve already got. A bright pink, I think, kaffe-fashion. And light colours, since my collection tends towards darkness.

We hope to go to Strathardle later this week, although neither of us is in tiptop condition. But I can’t leave the September page of my calendar blank, and we need to get in the apple harvest, all 12 of them, and ready the lawnmower for its winter snooze.

The plan is that I’ll bring back Ketki’s gansey, finish it here, and then launch myself into Theo’s Obama-electing cashmere gansey. Or maybe knit the Kidsilk stole. Or both. Or something.

6 comments:

  1. Hi Jean - Just wanted to let you know that I put a little something in the mail for you this morning. It'll probably be about a week before it reaches you.

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  2. Anonymous12:58 PM

    A lot of online shops have pictures of the colorways that should help you decide. I'm eager to see what you choose!

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  3. Anonymous2:27 PM

    i just have to say how much I'm enjoying your stash revelations. I may yet get the courage to do mine. However, you must be eligible for some sort of prize with that red yarn still in its wrapping. Perhaps we'll go back to that in lieu of plastic bags.

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  4. Hi Jean
    I use yarndex (dot) com to look at yarn colours yardage etc as I have little access to rowan/noro etc
    This is the page for kid silk haze
    http://www.yarndex.com/yarn.cfm?yarn_id=1037
    If you click on the colour chart it makes it big enough to read the names.
    I haven't yet loaded all my stash on ravelry, its on my list to do when my husband is not around!!

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  5. I found recently that Englishyarns.co.uk had a good range of KSH colours, including those of previous seasons (like a gold colour, much nicer with other colours than on its own).

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  6. oh i love the revelations and your take on knitting. it is always interesting to read your blog. not only for the knitting though. the little yarn story about your husband is just so sweet. i have had a tendency to throw out yarn between my knitting obsessions. now i seem to be beavering without end. i may end up with a nice big stash and a bad conscience whenever i donøt knit.

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