What Should Have Been On My Blog Yesterday
Continuing on in my small project obsession, I present the most luxurious item that I am working on currently -- a triangular scarf made with Hunt Valley Cashmere (located in Marlyand, no website).
As Julie and I were getting close to leaving MS&W in May, we took one last pass through the main barn. I'd seen the Hunt Valley Cashmere booth before, but just assumed it would be far too expensive to buy enough to actually do anything with. But like all good knitters and fiber fiends, we were ultimately lured in by the siren call of soft fiber -- and because she had some really lovely red cashmere yarn out where we could see it.
Since it was the end of the show, I wasn't feeling like spending too much more money (not only that, but there wasn't much room left in my suitcase) so I opted for a small, one skein project in laceweight cream cashmere -- a triangular lace scarf/shawl that I thought would make a nice fall/winter/spring accent for warding off the chill. It's a little hard to make out from the photo, but the scarf uses the Roman Stripe pattern from Barbara Walker's Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns
I always love triangular patterns because they lull you into thinking that they are going to be a quick knit at the beginning. This scarf is only 66 rows and I'm done with row 46. In fact, however, they are big teases! At row 47 I have 134 stitches. By row 66, I'm binding of 364. But I like the pattern so far -- it has a very clever edging (read one that I thought must have been a mistake in the instructions when I first started doing it) that I will try to get a closeup of and explain when I get to blocking it.
I find the yarn quite pleasant, too. It has the softness of cashmere, but the sheen of silk. And from my perspective, it's hard to put together fiber traits I would like better. Makes me want to get out the cashmere tussah silk blend roving that I have in my stash. Hmmm....
P.S. I was able to recover all but one post thanks to the magic of Google caching. Unfortunately, it's just not going to be possible for me to go back and put all the comments in. But it's nice to have been able to mostly recover ffrom a catastrophic problem that I should have been prepared for and wasn't. I knew there was a reason to let those Google-bots roam through my blog!
That shawl is very pretty! That is the same stitch used in the ChicKnits Lacey Poncho I made last year - it is really beautiful once it's blocked. Can you tell me where to find instructions for adapting a stitch like that to a triangle shawl? - I would love to know how to do that.
Glad you were able to find you cached posts.
Its great to have a really wonderful stash sometimes. Don't I wish there was some nice cashmere in mine.
Lovely scarf to be. You mention that it's the "Roman Stripe" pattern from Barbara Walker. Did you come up with how to use it in a triangular scarf, or is it an actual pattern? If you came up with how to use it in a triangular scarf, can you share that info? It would be greatly appreciated.
How much yarn is in your skein? I have 1 oz of qiviut (another yummy but dreadfully expensive yarn) that I would like to make a scarf out of, but have not found any patterns that will suit.
This sounds like a self designed pattern. Is that the case or are you using a bought pattern? It looks beautiful and I am inspired to try to do something with my qiviut NOW. (well, our 25 degree weather with a wind chill of some unpleasant number in Ohio is providing a push as well...)
Glad you were able to salvage your blog after the crash.
:)
I love the triangular scarf. What pattern did you use?
TIA