And another new project. . .

Well, I've started a new knitting project.
There's an odd reason I started it. Well, ok, not so odd for me.

You see, I realised the wool stash was getting a bit out of hand and so, while at IKEA, I purchased some storage boxes.
So, I got home and assembled and moth-proofed the storage boxes (including putting some lavender and lavender essential oil in the boxes) and started re-housing the wool and yarn.

There I was, happily transferring from boxes and bags to the nice new boxes and I suddenly came across these two cones of 4-ply herdwick wool I'd bought from Texere yarn mill on a whim - it's made specifically for outdoor garments and is also a bit hairy, though a pleasant gray marl colour. I remembered about a month ago, just a couple days after I bought it, I'd seen a moth crawling across one of the cones. I was quick and killed the evil little critter. But, remembering that moth made me pause and think "what if it managed to lay a couple eggs?".

So I pulled out both the cones and started thinking on what I could make. Luckily I'd used my brain and weighed the wool when I got it home, and the written calculations (rough ones, since I didn't know how much the cardboard cones themselves weighed) indicated that there was about 1450 metres per cone. I knew that was enough to make at least a sweater per cone.
But, I decided I wanted to combine/double the wool and maybe add something else so I'd get a winter-weight yarn (at least an aran weight) and be able to make something for winter.
I was lucky, and remembered I'd gotten 14 balls of deep purple Debbie Bliss DK merino in a sale (£1.50 per 50g ball - a fantastic deal).

I trawled the computer and found a pattern I'd downloaded for a serape-type wrap off the Berroco yarn Website (www.berroco.com). It was a plain pattern, actually developed for one of their fluffy synthetic yarns, but the swatch I did with the combined wools worked out to perfectly match the gauge of the yarn.
I decided to add a border pattern and I also thought it would be a perfect time to try out cabling, since I'd wanted to for a while. So, I added a simple cable, but I did three repeats of it so it would be a wide band. I pulled out a 5.5mm circular knitting needle (42" length), cast on 190 stitches and started knitting. I was VERY lucky and everything worked out fine.
I've just started the third ball of the purple wool and completed 9 1/2" in length - I've only got another 49 1/2" to go. *grin*

The picture above is primarily of the border pattern (a knit-purl weave effect) and the cable. Other than the border and the cable, the wrap is knitted in stocking stitch. It's slow going, but I'm having fun - and knitting cabling is a lot easier than I thought it would be.

One last thing - the picture isn't a photo. It's a scan. I could not, for the life of me, manage to photgraph the knitting. It's strangely reflective and the detail does not come out at ALL. So in desperation I popped the knitting into the scanner and it worked beautifully - the cable was nice and crisp and the colour only needed a tiny bit of adjustment. It's just a shame that the border pattern isn't clearer. Ah well, you can't have everything.

Until the next entry.