Casting On . . . Again

Before you say, huh? Wasn't that sweater pink? Please read on.

So I was going to knit my Lucy right? Right. Then I saw a completed Jawbreaker cardigan (Interweave Knits, Fall 2006) on another blog--don't ask me where, it was one of those late night surfing sort of incidents where you can't remember where you've been things. But there I was having one of those "I've-got-the-perfect-stash-for-that" moment. So off I go and I've cast on another sweater. But before you start shaking your head and counting on your fingers, toes, and looking for the neighbor's extra toed cat to help out as to how many projects I currently have on the needles, let me explain why this is the most perfect project.

It all starts with the "goat yarn." Well, that's what I call it. I saw it across a marketplace at a knitting retreat about 2 years ago. I didn't care how much yardage there was, I just had to have it.
So I paid a ridiculous sum of money for this one of a kind, handspun treat (with little to no yardage to it) and brought it home, totally enamoured with the lovely shades of blue and bottle green
and the completely white, white. And then I noticed something.

The yarn stank. I mean stank. Like goats. Like a goat in August on a really hot day. So I washed it, delicately soaking in the sink with some wool wash, confident that the goat odor would go away.

It didn't.

I put it in the washing machine, soaked it with a cup of vinegar, again confident the goat smell would go away.

It didn't. While it hung to dry in the laundry room, none of my family would venture downstairs, complaining I'd turned the house into Green Acres.

Back into the washing machine it went. This time with an entire bottle of vinegar. And finally, the goat smell went away. But sadly, my love affair with it had faded a bit. So I wound it up and tucked it away thinking that I would fall in love again soon.

Yet, like all stash, it had to wait to find some help. And then along came two skeins of Sophie by Wool in the Woods. 50% wool, 50% Llama. Doesn't this yarn make you drool? I snagged them in a clearance sale at a yarn shop that was closing. Again, the blues and greens caught my eye, and despite the fact there was only 400 yards and I hadn't a clue what I was going to do with them, I bought them and tucked them away.

Then about a year ago, I spotted two skeins of Cascade Pastaza, and had one of those "aha" moments. Like, hmmm, I wonder if . . . and when I got home, I dug out the goat yarn and the Sophie, and introduced them to their new basket mate, their coordinated lost half brother, Pastaza.

And so they've been sitting in their basket patiently waiting for the perfect project. Fast forward and check this out: Look at how they blend together. So what I am doing is, I've used the Pastaza for the waist ribbing. Then I am using knitting with all three of the variegated yarns in the body, then I am going to use the white for the cuffs of the sleeves and the collar. And is it knitting fast. Rather than knit it in pieces, I am knitting the entire body in one piece, and just picking up whatever skein suits my fancy.

I really do need a 12 step program. But the good news is, I'm knitting from my stash . . .