Serendipity - the Tale of a New Project

Yep, I've found another great new project.. I think I'm suffering from startitis at the moment. I had dug out the allotted yarn for the "Central Park Hoodie" but didn't like the swatch, so that's been shelved again for now in favour of this...

Almost 12 months ago, after spending the day manning a stall at a particularly uninspiring craft fair (i.e. virtually no sales), I agreed a great trade with Fiona of Yarnwise - 4 of my knitted collars for 500g of gorgeous chocolate orange merino wool.
Think clementines, conkers, and steaming hot chocolate all swirled up together in the dyebath...

The merino has sat patiently waiting in the stash since then, until last month when I heard it sweetly singing to me. I wound it into balls, and put it in my "Pending"* stash box whilst keeping an eye open for pattern inspiration.

Now that the weather is finally cooling down, I decided on a sweater - but not just any old sweater. I want to end up with one of those favourite comfy kinds of sweater that is a joy to throw on and wear; not too heavy, not too cool, just the right size. One I want to wear all the time - you know the sort. It also has to be a joy to knit - not so complex that I need silence to work on it, but not an endless sea of stocking stitch either.

Two nights ago night serendipity struck! Whilst chatting to my in-laws (who had stayed for dinner as thanks for babysitting our DDs whilst we attended the school parent's evening) I decided to browse through my file of patterns (mainly prints of free web patterns that I've come across on random surf sessions) and, quite by accident, found the perfect match for the merino!

The pattern is for a lacy cabled sweater, from the Canadian yarn manufacturer Kertzer - and I'm so glad I printed it as it doesn't seem to be on their site now. It uses about 475g-worth of the yardage that I have in the merino, with exactly the same gauge - even the finished measurements seem to be perfect for my height and arm length which is unusual.

I was so excited I swatched immediately (bang on target), then unravelled and set it aside and started it last night. I know I should be carrying on with the other WIPs but I needed to get a sleeve on the go to use up some of the initial New Project Enthusiasm. :-)


* My stash is held (mainly) in a tower of plastic boxes which fill one corner of our bedroom. The upper boxes are naturally easier to get into, so I tend to use the yarn from those first. The top one is for yarn that I'm hoping to use next - i.e. "Pending". The yarns I'm working with currently are held in the very useful storage stool that came with our cream leather suite, which of course stays close to my chair... ;-)