This yarn is handmaiden casbah sock and it is what I consider a very high end luxury yarn. Sort of a ferrari of yarns. It is gorgeous to look at, and it is equally gorgeous to use. It is mostly merino, with cashmere making it even softer and nylon giving it enough stretch to be sock-useful. Appropriate for a sock weight yarn. One skein makes this lovely cowl
which has acquired buttons since its photoshoot, but was also tragically gifted to a stunningly appropriate recipient before more pictures could be taken. There were leftovers. This is simple garter stitch with a bunch of tiny one stitch button holes, because I really wanted to show off the complexity and richness of these colors. They're tonal blues and greens with delicious brown throughout--the best colors of a spring day, barring flowers. The colors are the primary draw for this yarn for me--their intensity and collaboration transform these skeins into art.
This yarn is so luscious I bought more of it, because when I saw these colors, all I could do was gape. Someone captured my favorite moments of fall--in yarn.
Aside from the colors, the yarn texture is so soft that it is difficult to stop rubbing it on my face. I have always found merino to be a particularly squishy and soft yarn, but combining that with just a hint of cashmere gives the yarn drape and weight, a more secure presence on this earth. It feels like somebody spun up some clouds and it lays like water on the skin. It is also warm and toasty, making it a fantastic winter hat/mitten/sock yarn. I made a cowl because--well, I'm not sure why. Probably because I thought my feet would get too hot in it (I like sort of cold feet) and because I wanted that lusciously silky softness squished against my chin whenever possible.
Anyway, back to the main point. The point being that I spend a lot of time thinking and planning and organizing my yarn. This usually results in knitting goals, which are always rather fun. Last year I succesfully accomplished 3 of my 7 goals, put 2 on the side due to extenuating circumstances, and had 2 that were 100% unreasonable for my time and personality. I made my first shawl, knit myself 3 pairs of socks (all right, the heel is a bit off center on the last one, and the cuff is just the tiniest bit too tight. I might have to make some improvements), and learned how to cable (and then promptly learned how to cable without a cable needles). I wasn't able to felt my intended project, nor to knit an epic estonian lace project, since those objects were all in the U.S. and I was temporarily in Denmark. And steeking, which I added in November, and finishing all my UFOs were both entirely unreasonable for the year.
Still, I have new goals for 2012, because I like to reach and push myself, but mostly because I like to plan and think ahead of time.
1) Stash Appreciation
I've travelled a lot of places in the past 9 months, and I've acquired a lot of yarn while doing so. I'm still on vacation for another two weeks, and part of that vacation will be yarn crawling with family and friends, but once I get back home I really want to spend a lot of time with the stash I've acquired. To achieve this, I won't buy any yarn for three months (except what is necessary to complete a project I've already begun). Now, this doesn't preclude knitting supplies--I really want to try some knitpicks options, and I want to get that little suitcase/cover/holder/thing for keeping dpns on a sock in progress, and maybe a magnetic pattern/chart holder since I am intending to do more lace this year as well. But the yarn can be on hold for three simple months. It really isn't that hard. As a reward, any money I almost but do not end up spending on yarn I can save for a big yarn crawl when my sisters visit in October.
2) Year of Lace
I love lace. I love the way it looks, the efficiency of getting 1500 yards for $14, the thinness of its plies and how it makes a very effective garment, and how that garment can change a lot just by varying the needles used to knit it up. I have acquired a fair bit of laceweight in the past couple of years, and I've also collected 3-4 books on lace. But I've never actually knit anything up out of it. My goal is to knit until I use up my stash laceweight (or at least 50% of it). As a reward, I will allow myself to
3) finish old holiday WIPs
I hurt my wrist two weeks before the holidays this year so a lot of presents got put on hiatus. I'm recovering, and I'm behind, and I have a lot of things I'd like to do. I have a hat to make, a shawl/lap blanket, another huge blanket in stockinette, four pairs of mitts and a scarf to make. I'd like to get those out of the way ASAP, except for the blankets.
4) beading
This year I really want to try some beading. Mostly I've been too lazy to take my yarn to a store and figure out which beads go best with it. In order to motivate myself I've arranged for some planned WIPs to require beads. See #5.
5) planned objects
1. colorwork mitts for L
2. cabled mitts for A.J.
3. hat for J.
4. not too hot mittens for S. (I seemed to have lost the yarn. WTF?)
5. maybe a scarf for A.J. if I have patience with this splitty yarn that I acquired
6. charcoal mitts for knititforward2011, and mailing the rest of those FOs off (and deciding if I must ripout and replace the sari silk scarf and use its silk to do something different, bigger, better...
7. continue plugging away on big green blanket with 1000 intarsia ends to deal with
8. acquire sufficient yarn for big ole lap blanket for S.
That's the holiday gifts, though the last two don't have to be done for a year, and 5. is probably going to drop out.
Of course I want to abandon all these responsibilites, as I see them, and knit the following:
1. Haruni in tiny green alpaca lace (almost done with the first ball. I have three. this is going to take forever
2. Haruni in thick brown linen (it's... so fast, and so much fun! and that's my souvenir Spain yarn)
3. the red hat. That yarn was so thick and irresistable, I couldn't help but cast on right away
4. Shipwreck in madelinetosh laceweight in the thunderstorm colorway. my first big lace of the year and I want it so badly even though it will require a lot of work
5. a beaded estonian lace project with my big skein of red baruffa cashwool
6. Juno lace stole with my silvery sea silk and beads of some sort--maybe black? or another shawl/excellent use of sea silk
7. Daedelus in my grashupfer wollmeise. I love it--it looks gorgeous, and like it will fit me really well, and if I don't have enough yarn (I got 4 skeins of wollmeise) I think I can do some of the sleeves in my 5th skein of very-similar-green
8. felted french press slippers--I got this pattern for the holidays and am in love with it, but I don't have enough feltable yarn just yet. I will have to pick a nice color and use this to learn how to felt
9. fiddly toys! I have a third of a snail, a burning desire for a kraken and a crocodile, a pattern for a tiny elephant, and a request for cat toys. and I am not afraid to use that little list either
10. family socks. I am teaching my sisters to knit socks and I need to figure out the best/easiest heel for them (we are doing toe-up socks). this requires me to be one step ahead. instead I am woefully behind, as always. The socks are, of course, all in the same colorway.
11. A shirt out of my Spa and a shirt out of my madelinetosh dk
12. something stranded colorwork and intense with my six skeins of spud and chloe fine
13. something stranded colorwork and intense with my black and chocolate-cherry sock yarns
14. also, maybe invent a cityscape pattern out of that weird berroco mosaic stuff I acquired, and that other mitten-appropriate yarn
15. A purple shawl for A. If I can't do it with that wool-cotton blend, then find something new and exciting to do it with
16. A clapotis for R. with that light pink stuff
17. fingerless mitts for R. from Dr. Who with the new pink dk weight stuff
18. design a norweigan star hat that doesn't suck for S.
19. Start this year's blanket/throw from the chenille; decide how much I hate it
20. make a market bag with my plarn, darnit!
after careful inspection, I think I've done too much planning and have too many goals. Oh well. look, shiny things!
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