During the summer I really really wanted to start to make a good dent in my stash. This year I would like to see it shrink instead of growing. So I decided to go on a yarn-diet and knit only from stash. It shouldn’t be so difficult I thought, as I have plenty to choose from, both fibre-wise and colour-wise. However the moment i decided to do so and write about it, Quince & co decides to bring out a new cotton, Willet. And could I stand the temptation? Of course I couldn’t…. Quince make my favourite linen and their wool is very nice too. They have a good eye for colour and a nice pattern support too. The release also happened around my birthday, so in the end I just couldn’t resist. So I bought two lots to make two cardigans. When I received the yarn, the pink I had chosen was kind of an old-fashioned colour. Somewhere between pink and apricot, nicely understated. There are no grown-up patterns yet for Willet, but this is a sport-weight yarn so plenty to choose from. Kim Hargreaves has some very nice patterns for Cotton Glace and I thought that those patterns would be a good fit for my new yarn and with very small adjustments it is!
So I choose an “old” Kim Hargreaves pattern, Asta from the Rowan magazine 35. This is a pattern from the time that Rowan, in my honest opinion of course, was at its best. Classic patterns with a impeccable finish, good styling for the magazines and still 4-ply soft and 4-ply cotton were there main yarns…and Calmer...
Anyways knitting this cotton was very nice. Anyone who thinks that cotton is just hard on your hands, try this one, it is soft and nice. In the skein it does seem just a tiny bit fuzzy, but when knitting it, that disappears and you get some nice subtle sheen instead. The knitting seemed just slightly uneven (see picture above) but the stitches align very nice when being blocked so the result is just fine. The fuzziness might not be a good sign for wear, but somehow I don’t think it will be a problem as I had to frog the fonts several times as I couldn’t count and follow the pattern right. And even when frogs three times, the yarn didn’t really show it.
My cardigan is done, it is warm and cozy and good for transitional days...
Now I will go back to my stash and really make that dent in it…..
