Early this fall a colleague gave me part of her mother's knitting stash. I was thrilled to get a bag of laceweight cashmere the color of good caramel, dating, I am guessing from the typography on the band, from the late forties or early 1950s. It's been sitting in a box all that time, waiting to clothe something else after being parted from its original goat. I've started a notched shawl in a lotus-flower patterned lace, from a collection of shawls published by Knitter's Magazine. It's the cover shawl for that book, and I've previously worked it in the Brown Sheep cotton/wool yarn (a luscious pale yellow) called for in the pattern. This cashmere is finer; I'm working it with a 3mm needle (US#2) and it's working up a treat. The yarn was obviously carefully stored, but it feels a little strange in the hand right now. I did a test swatch and soaked it in wool wash, and it came out well, quite soft and comfortable. It knits up nicely and the pattern stitch comes out well defined, and I think it will make a handsome garment. This is a useful pattern, and I'll probably make it again in a cream colored laceweight for a wedding present for someone special.
Included in the bag with the cashmere (two colors, the caramel and a slightly darker warm brown) were some amazing swatches showing what the original owner had intended to do with it - a complicated two-color basketweave which is way beyond me. I feel an obligation to this skilled knitter whose needles are now still to make something really wonderful from this yarn, and if the shawl comes out right, I'll give it to her daughter - a warm hug from her mother, come to her sideways.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
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