Wednesday, May 30, 2012

On lonely yarn

When our relationship was new, and CP wanted to impress me with his deep understanding of my love for knitting, he went to Peru alone to visit family and came back with this:

untitled

It's four skeins of Plymouth Indiecita DK weight baby alpaca. (Which I could've easily bought here at home, but I didn't mention that part.) I thanked him profusely, and set about finding a project for the yarn.

I'm still looking.

Three years later.


The thing is, I have problems with this yarn.

For starters, it's about 500 yards, which is an odd amount--it's not enough for a sweater, too much for a hat or mittens. It might be enough for a baby sweater, but that sounds a lot like a sweater that would be worn just once before being spit-up on and ruined.
It's very soft and warm, but knit up, doesn't have much structure. I tried using it to knit CP a pair of fingerless gloves, and it was just too . . . floppy. Men need, you know, manly gloves.

And the color. A muddy army green. Blah.

Because of the fuzziness of the alpaca, the yarn doesn't have outstanding stitch definition to begin with; add to that the dark, grim color, and any patterning is almost undetectable.


I don't know what to do with this yarn.

I can't sell it, I can't give it away--it was a gift! But I can't seem to find a project for it.

And I refuse to drag it to through yet another move only to be stuffed in a bin and ignored for a decade.

Readers, please, help me find something to do with this yarn!

(And don't forget, Friday is the last day to comment on this post and be entered in my Blogiversary giveaway!)

5 comments :

Anonymous said...

Would it be good for something like a lacey scarf or shawl? It looks like it might have a nice halo and drape. I hope you can figure something out!

Rebecca said...

A lap blanket?

Unknown said...

Can you use it for colorwork? Like paired with bright pink or something un-grim?

Kaffe Fassett pairs blahs with brights- so I think it would work out nicely!

Alrischa said...

I bet you could make it go further and give it more structure by holding it together with another yarn. Then you could get a vest out of it or something :)

JP said...

I like Pacasha's idea of pairing it with a bright color. The Stipe Study Shawls that are all the rage now don't have have patterning that would be obscured.

Or if you want the color solo, there are any number of rectangle wraps or triangle shawl patterns(next design idea for you??) with a bit of lace edging and that are in garter or stockinette stitch so there's no pattern to obscure.