Cashmere harvest !

We all know how pricey is cashmere wool.. but there are other ways to get it cheaply. My sister lives in Kansas where garage sales culture is flourishing. She always buy me cashmere tops costing nothing really. mere few dollars. One of the purchases she gifted me was this lovely soft ,oversized ,grey cashmere cardigan.

I wore it a lot , and when few holes started to show I've decided to unravel it. Now this is machine knitted and the yarn is extremely soft and fragile as you can expect from 100% cashmere lace. There is a warning here , not all machine knitted garments can be unraveled ! It is easy when you know what look for in the seams... I had a tutorial from my friend Eddie, about the fine crochet line running through the seams, in which I'm very grateful for. Here is a link to her blog regarding those issues.
And a few photos from the harvest;

• the unravelling.

• Unwashed skeins

• My lovely gorgeous soft cashmere cakes ..delish !

My knitting heiress !

It took several attempts to teach my eldest the art of knitting. Her being left handed did not help either. But last year something have clicked and she started to produce wearable garments. My heart is filled with joy as she is really enjoy the knitting and progressing in her understanding of the different techniques.
Here she is with her own  knitted garter scarf and Ysolda's hat. They are not flawless but who cares..

Adi registered in ravelry as tinytangler, why don't you make her feel welcomed and be her friend ..x

Wallace butchered and now complete..Phew !

Wallace was very closed to completion, knitted the 2nd sleeve and ran out of yarn 5 rows before bind off. I decided it would be silly to order one ball of yarn plus postage (not that I haven't done that before..) for few rows and anyway was unhappy with the length of the jacket so decided to chop the whole thing, back and 2 fronts and the bottom , re knit downwards , re-seam and use the leftover yarn to finish the bloody sleeve.

 And this is how you do it- Measure where you want the cardigan to end, I preferred it to be on my hip bone and then go up 1.5 inches (to allow for inner side hem shaping). Insert a different color life line, as straight as possible and then take sharp scissors and cut parallel underneath the life line, not to close , about 2 stitches far. Then ,with a smaller knitting needle pick up stitches from the lifeline, pull it out and carefully pull the shreds of yarn away . You should have a whole row of stitches on your needle waiting to be knitted downward. Chances are ,you did not insert the lifeline straight and jumped up/down a row..doesn't matter ,just tink back the stitches until you will get a full undisturbed row.

Here is a close up, decided not to knit the upper pockets and used brown shell buttons. More close up pics here.

I and Henry. He lost one of his wives last week. Natural causes..Hmmm It is surprising how friendly chickens are on an empty stomach :)

Lima is an aran weight which I've knitted as double knitting so the fabric is extremely warm and dense, perfect for those chilly spring morning before the sun is high up.

Awaiting Marion Foale's knitting collection book

Here is a book I'm really eager to get-

Marion Foale Knitting Collection: Book 1 

Marion has an eye to supreme fit and cut, here are my favourites;

Classic ! will be one very happy lady when this book will arrive to my door step...Long wait though, amazon will only release it in about July here in the UK. :(

Bits of Wallace..

I'm engaged in lots of small pretty details at the moment. Although it looks like an easy stockinette it has magnitude of interesting details; the sewn-in hems, picot at the bottom, double buttons holes at the sewn in button bands, gaping cuffs with a shirt like closures, interesting pockets..I'm taking my time with this one. Again one of Kim Hargreaves classical gems.
 I'm using Rowan's lima which is a chain type of yarn and if knitted tight like in this cardigan it results in a soft to the touch ,channel-y fabric. The color in brown with soft tones of reds in it.
Spring has sprung and I'm itching now to complete it. Will keep you posted ! :)

wrong side of bottom & front hems



cuff




picot hem



Echo flower photo shoot

This is my Echo flower shawl, my first shawl in a knit along.

The yarn is 4 ply alpaca , natural white and soft with some Little straw stuck here and there. It was harvested from Fowberry Hera.

 I had 2 hanks of 660 yards in total. After finishing the first hank, I made one more repeat (one more than a shawlette) and then started on the edging. Those nupps are yarn guzzlers so switched to beads and even omitted couple of rows. I was left with 40cm of yarn in the end. Oh the stress of it all..

Very pleased !! :)

The magic in blocking

Sea of  white flowers...