I have a fairly good-sized yarn stash. It’s not as large as the stashes of some knitters I know (I’m looking at you, Marsha), but it’s large enough that I could knit for many years without ever needing to buy more. I will buy more, however; I fall in love easily. Some yarn in my stash is so precious that I’m almost afraid to knit with it. What if it’s not the absolutely perfect yarn for that project and the yarn is wasted? What if the yarn, adored sometimes for years, isn’t as wonderful as I thought once I start knitting with it? Could I stand the disappointment? So my twenty skeins of pale pink Mulberry Silk wait patiently in a cubby, as do six skeins of handpainted silk that make me think of Egyptian Pharaohs, countless skeins of gorgeous Koigu, and a few other prizes.
Along with those yarns, I’ve been carefully guarding 17 skeins of Jaeger Cashmina in a beautiful cinnamon brown crossed with bronze. I bought it in Scotland, at the John Lewis department store in Edinburgh. I had no idea what I was going to do with it. I bought every skein they had in that color and dye lot. Each skein came in its own little museum box.
See? How could you not love it?
In the past year or so, my grip on all of these yarns has loosened a bit. I’ve come to realize that while it’s fine to keep some yarns just for admiring or loving, life is short and it’s a bit senseless to deprive oneself of knitting joy. So, the Cashmina has come out to play. I found another Japanese pattern that I loved, and I decided that the Cashmina is perfect for it. It’s from the Let’s Knit Series 13. Here is the photo from the book.
I wanted to start it when I was supposed to be finishing my Bohus. I did let myself swatch, but managed to restrain myself until the Bohus was off the needles.
I finished the back this morning.
