Persistent Knitter

I’m a firm believer in stash-aged-yarn. Sometimes use a yarn right after I get it, but I have quite a few yarns that are percolating in my stash until the inspiration strikes me for that particular yarn. I have ultimate faith in this process because as a quilter, I know that there is no better feeling than to feel the urge to make a quilt, get an idea, go to my fabric stash, pull out a bunch of great fabrics, and make the quilt without ever leaving the house (see my latest example here).

The reason I can do this is because when I saw a great fabric, and had the money, I bought it. (Staying out quilt shops was good for the budget) Most of my fabric stash is in 1 or 1/2 yard increments. I love scrappy quilts, and having small amounts of many different fabrics allows me to make great scrappy quilts.

So, back to yarn. Most of the time I do prefer to have a specific project in mind. At least to the level of “Socks” “Sweater”, “Scarf” or “Sample”. This dictates how much I buy of a particular yarn. A year ago at the Estes Wool Market, I fell in love with some Interlacements RickRack yarn. I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do with it (They showed it as a shawl. Hmm.. nice, but didn’t seem that’s what I wanted to make). I bought two skeins of it, which I think is a full pound. Ever since then I’ve been on the look out for a pattern that might tickle my fancy. I found a pattern a while ago, but had too many things going at that time to really consider starting it right then. (I did go so far as to wind one of the skeins into 2 balls).

This past weekend, another yarn caught my fancy, and I just had to have it. It’s Helen’s Lace from Lorna’s Laces. The colors are drop dead gorgeous and the yarn is super soft being a combination of wool and silk. It also has a great looking sheen to it. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it, but it came home with me. I thought I might like to try my needles at knitting a lace shawl. (It’s lace weight. made sense) I wanted to take it with me to look at patterns, so I pulled it out of my stash, and had a thought. Maybe I should get that rick-rack yarn out too.

Well, the colors are perfect together. Take a look:

The rick rack (which is the ball on the bottom) has more green in it, but the purple bits are an almost perfect match for the Helen’s lace. (That color is called “Blackberry, but it reminds me more of deep deep grapes)

I pulled out the original pattern idea for the rick rack - a tank top with lacy cardigan; and thought what a great pair. I could make the tank and wear it with the shawl! The shawl I’ve semi-decided on (from A Gathering of Lace) requires two hanks of the Helen’s lace, so it’ll take a little bit of time for that to come in. (theknitter.com is ordering it for me) The skein in the picture is on loan, because I had to have a picture of the two yarns together. Hopefully the two skeisn won’t be completely different from this one, and will still go. I have a few other projects to finish before starting the tank/shell in the rick-rack yarn; but it’s moved itself to the top of the pile for now.