Bi-craftual?

I think I’m officially bi-craftual. I have the crochet bug for certain, but have also started two new knitting projects!

Last Wednesday I started a new afghan based on this pattern from Lion Brand, a super-duper easy shell pattern. It just flies off the hook!

A little time here and there and I have about 20 inches, or about a third done And all yarns are coming from the stash, which makes me warm and glowy inside.

On the knitting front, a little story.

One. I’ve never knit with cashmere, the 100% variety. I do love its softness and warmth just as much as the next rabid fiberista, but there are so many fibers that I like just as much for a slew of reasons. However, it was on my vague fiber to-do list.

Two. I was having unusual difficulty selecting a new knitting pattern. Days went by as I mulled it over.

Then serendipity came to town. I recently taught a friend at work how to knit, and she’s really enjoying it. Her mother-in-law, I came to find out, has an enormous stash of mostly cobweb to laceweight cashmere for years, decades possibly. She isn’t a knitter but always wanted to learn.

Having learned that her DIL learned to knit, she immediately shipped a large box of large cashmere hanks plus some smaller skeins of fiber, one of which turned out to be an ounce of quiviet. And this was just a bit of her stash, she said she didn’t want to overwhelm A. Oh my.

A asked me if I would be willing to knit her MIL, H, a shawlette or other small project with the cashmere, as she wouldn’t feel confident to make that kind of project for some time. I was touched that H had generously sent A this incredible yarn to start her own stash, and also, I feel for the knitter at heart. I also love knitting with a purpose. In other words, I was game.

One day A brought the yarn in to work, and we took some time to look over patterns. We settled on Ishbel by Ysolda. Good taste, she has. And then to pick out the yarn. We went with a hank in a gorgeous shade of wine.

Then, the kicker, A asks me to please pick out one or more hanks for me. Of cashmere. Both as “payment”, which I was insisting I did not want, and also because H asked A to share the stash with me. This I did not know. Also, A did not know what in all the time in the world she would do with this much laceweight cashmere, and more was likely to come. Oh my.

So I selected a single hank, in a royal violet, and then immediately remembered that I had been wanting to get some laceweight for Knitbot’s Featherweight Cardigan pattern. I swatched, and got gauge. Woohoo!

It took 3 hours one afternoon to wind the hanks and then double-strand one and triple-strand the other to meet the needs of their respective patterns. It was so soft and smooth I could hardly feel it going through my hand.

So, I’m getting to knit with cashmere and I have two new knitting projects lined up that I’m excited about. How’s that for neat and tidy? I guess I just needed patience to wait for the fates to sort things.

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On the quiviet, A picked up that ball and asked if it was enough to make a scarf. I took out the label tucked in the center and that’s when I realized what it was. I said “do you know what this is”? Nope. I informed her it was quite a treasure. And then she calmly and genuinely asked if I’d rather have the quiviet. Not ever, I said. I will not take another knitter’s quiviet. I suggested a cowl, BTW.