First New Project of 2011

I should have taken a pic before I started rolling it into balls, but I was so excited to get going on the project I didn't even think of it until the first ball was wound.

My daughter Sarah sent me a HUGE HUGE 1000 yard skein of orange mohair for Christmas. She bought it somewhere in Massachusettes. It's from an indy dyer called Lobster Pot Yarns and the color is Lobster Bisque. According to the label, it was "hand dyed in a lobster pot and hung to dry in the salt air of Cape Cod."  Sounds wonderful, doesn't it?

Now, I am not one for orange. In fact, if you ask me if there's a color I hate, I will immediately answer "Orange". I detest orange most of the time, but I actually like this color. It's not that glaring scream at you "don't shoot me!" color that orange usually is. This one has a nice pinkiness to it. More like Salmon. I'm quite surprised by how much I like it. I wanted to start knitting with it right away, but what to make? I don't wear orange.

I have a cardigan pattern that came with an Ironstone Yarns kit I made several years ago when I had the shop. I made the kit up as a model for the shop. I wore it, customers would ask about it, I'd sell a kit. I hung on to the pattern in case I should ever want to use it again. It is perfect for this Lobster Bisque mohair.

 The pattern requires 4 different yarns. I have substituted so I only need 3.

I bought a variegated Araucania Magallanes in color #323 for one of the required yarns. It's a single-ply thick and thin worsted weight yarn of 100% wool. Very soft to the touch. The other two are supposed to be metallic carrying threads-neither of which I have, nor available any more. So I have substituted a pale apricot fingering weight acrylic. One strand equals what 2 strands of the other would. I spent two days winding the yarns into balls. I could have dug out my swift and ball winder, but I enjoyed doing it by hand. Me and the yarn kinda communed with each other.

Last night I made a swatch just to see how it looks. These two yarns tone down the orange of the mohair quite a bit. In fact, the three together are absolutely gorgeous! Forgive me, I didn't take a pic. I frogged it. Then I cast on for the back of the sweater. Later today I will try to find some decent light to take a pic of the 6 inches on the back that I've already got done. One thing about size 15 needles is that the project goes fast.

The weather has been very rainy the past couple days. It has turned the driveway/parking area in front of the house into a very slick ice rink with a nice coat of water on top. Unfortunately, I don't have any skates. Trying to walk down the driveway to check the mailbox was quite an adventure. I managed not to fall down by tromping in the snow along the edge. Yay me. Sweet Ruth was not so lucky. She fell flat on her back while getting in to the pickup truck. Now she has a sore back.

For today we have predictions of snow flurries followed by a couple days or so of frigid cold. We're talkin' single digits! But there will be sunshine with it.

I hate winter.

Live long and prosper. \\//