New Finished Object: Burberry Inspired Cowl

While waiting for the serious snow to come down tonight, I took some indoor pictures of my newest finished object, the Burberry Inspired Cowl. It's knit out of one of my all-time favorite yarns, Misti Alpaca Chunky, in a color way that Misti calls "Chartreuse Melange," but I call a variation on olive green. Like the other cowl I made from this yarn, this one feels like a warm and luxurious hug around my neck!

Hopefully this new addition to my winter wardrobe will be out playing in the snow tomorrow! Stay tuned.

Cocooning with Knitting and the Slow Cooker

It sounds like we will be getting a substantial amount of snow here in NJ tomorrow night into Tuesday. While I work from home so I can do my job regardless of the storm, the forecast has motivated me to stock up on comfort food and start some cozy knitting projects.

We bought a slow cooker last winter and I have fallen in love with it. There are so many healthy recipes and it's so easy! Even for someone who is not a great cook (me), I can make delicious meals that cook while I'm working upstairs all day. Last week I made a favorite, Soy & Lime Chicken Wings,
and today I picked up a Pork Shoulder to make this Slow Cooker Pork Roast. I think it's going to be delicious!

As for knitting, I did start working on the Shalom Cardigan using the "mystery" yarn I blogged about last week. The yarn feels great and I think this is going to knit up quickly. It's fairly mindless so I can take it with me to my book group this week (unless, of course, we are snowed out). But for my business trip to Chicago this coming weekend, I think I'll take my Monkey Socks, which have been on my needles for ages as a back-up project. It would be nice to have another pair of socks to rotate in to my sock drawer during these cold, snowy days!

Repurposing Yarn

I went to my first Big Apple Knitters Guild meeting last Saturday, to meet a friend who had been my classmate in the Craft Yarn Council's Certified Instructor Program at FIT in December.

The January BAKG meeting is always a yarn auction that benefits the Guild. Given the tremendous size of my stash, I sat and knit through 99% of the auction and didn't bid on anything, until a lonely bag of what looked like dark green and black variegated yarn came up at the end of the auction. No one seemed to want it, and I thought it was pretty, so I bid $3 and got it. My friend recommended that I reskein and wash the yarn, since it was wound into very tight balls and washing it would give it new life (and remove any trace of pets if there had been any in the previous yarn owner's home).

I went home that night and did just that, winding the yarn around my knees instead of getting out my wooden swift and ball winder. Lo and behold, I discovered that the yarn was actually a strand of dark green wool and a strand of black wool wound together:

but some of the balls had a fuzzy, thin black strand instead of one that matched the thickness and characteristics of the dark green.

Once my skeins were washed and hung to dry, I studied them and decided to get rid of the fuzzy thin black and replace it with a comparable black yarn once I knew the yarn weight. When all were dry and beautifully rewound into cakes,

I determined that each yarn was worsted weight, and held together, they made a bulky weight that watched to about 14 stitches/4" on #9 needles.

I have about 380 yards of the dark green/black combo, and another 338 yards of the dark green that will wait for a comparable black companion (I think KnitPicks Wool of the Andes will work just fine). And I've decided that the Shalom Cardigan will look great knit up in this yarn. I'll probably order the KnitPicks yarn within the next week and hopefully cast on soon!

Some people may be wondering whether all of this work and analysis was worth it for a $3 bag of yarn, but I got a lot of satisfaction out of this whole process and learned a great deal. Besides, I think it's kind of cool to repurpose yarn that has its own mysterious history. I'll keep you posted as the story continues!

P.S. I've been busy making several very warm knitted accessories, starting with my Never-ending Story Cowl. Will post details soon!