Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Hedonism?

There's something in me that struggles against the very concept of austerity and discipline and self-denial. I can be frugal at need, sure, but when it comes right down to it, I'm a hedonist at heart. And right now, right when I've dropped far too much money in a few days on yarn, and really should be reining back on my knitting budget for a couple of months... I can't stop thinking about all the yarn and patterns I want and all the projects I want to cast on.

I've been looking at lace and light fingering summer tees and tops, longing to buy a pattern or two:

And I dove into my stash to pull out the two most luxurious yarns I own and feast my fingertips on new projects:

I cast on a Jacke/Cardigan *Opera* a few weeks ago with the fine, sleek Skaska silk/yak laceweight that Bandit sneakily bought for me at last year's wool festival. The pattern is essentially an octagon knitted from the center out, with armholes added when the diameter reaches the width of one's back. Stitches are picked up afterwards for sleeves, and the edgings of both the sleeves and the main body are knit in a beautiful lace pattern.

I can't help pausing every so often to pet this yarn. It's sturdy, with great stitch definition, yet at the same time it's so sleek and soft and light and warm. And my superpower of never running out of yarn is apparently kicking in at full force. I went down three whole needle sizes, from the suggested 7 to a 4, to make a denser fabric. I've just passed the armholes, at an unblocked diameter of 16 inches. And I still have 85 grams left of the 98-gram cake.

But as much as I love this yarn, project monogamy is a bit too much to expect when I get restless. And so I also dug out the most absolutely decadent yarn I own: Jeannette by Mountain Colors. Fifty grams of 65% cashmere 35% silk. I do not exaggerate when I say that this yarn feels like knitting with cotton candy, or a baby kitten, or a cloud.

I only had the one skein of it (it was $48 a skein) so I had to find a pattern that would work well with 158 luscious yards.

Did I say that I was never knitting Storm Warning again?

I'm sure I never said anything that rash, right?

10 comments:

  1. argh I am having the same problem with yarny desires at the moment, I want them all!! Storm warning is really pretty, I can see why the boredom can be ignored while you cast it on....

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    1. Managing the cravings is so hard! I'm having some measure of success by allowing myself small rewards for getting work done.

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  2. As if my Rav favorites list needed to grow more!

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    1. I refuse to feel guilty for this! I'm just paying it forward :)

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  3. The colour of Jeannette is stunning. And Stardust has gone straight into my library!

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    1. The colorway is called Harmony Lake - and for some reason my camera always struggles with blue-greens and with reds. There are streaks of very subtle green mixed in with the blue.

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  4. I have been doing the exact same thing! I think I saved all of those same patterns over the past few weeks. Storm Warning is beautiful but yes I can see how the garter stitch would get old fast.

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    1. This one's not big enough to get tedious yet, but the other one I knitted eventually had hundreds of garter stitches near the middle. That was an ordeal and a half!

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  5. Gosh, I really love all those tees, especially Bonny. One day I will knit myself a top! One day...

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    1. There's something about light tops and socks that makes me think I can knit them in a day or two! I'm finding it rather difficult to keep myself from casting some on right now.

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