Vintage Fuzz

Here is a little blast from the past. It's not really all that long ago, though. I officially started knitting on November 3, 2007. Here is a photo I uploaded to Flickr on December 3, 2007. This is what I knit in a month, when I had just started knitting.



Ack! Look at all that novelty yarn! Man oh man, this makes me laugh. BUT, I had just started combining yarns for colour and texture. My first attempt (at the bottom left corner, and also in my Ravelry projects as an Ugh!) was not what I'd call successful, but it was the start of me becoming a "real" knitter. After casting on, knitting and purling, and casting off, the next thing I taught myself to do was change colours.

I am still short of a year knitting, but I am still completely self-taught (though I now connect up with other knitters and it's more fun that way). But one of my main goals remains the same. To use colour and texture in knitting to create interesting projects. Well, I want to say "beautiful" instead of "interesting", but "interesting" is more accurate.

One of the first patterns that ever caught my eye when I got on Ravelry was the Babette blanket.

I swear to God I have seen a knitted version of the pattern side-by-side with the crochet pattern -- somewhere -- but I've just recently searched Ravelry and I guess I was mistaken. They are all crochet. (To make a Babette blanket, I'd certainly be willing to start crocheting. I know I have made granny squares before, back in my crafty days when I was a Brownie. If I managed it when I was 10 years old, how hard could it be to pick it up again now?)

In the meantime, I want to start knitting a Modern Quilt Wrap. I've got about half the yarn, which I found at a thrift store, seven balls for $4 (of which five balls are unique colours). They are all vintage acrylic/mohair in the most wonderful bright colours that will look great in this pattern.

I know, I know. I'm not supposed to like acrylic. And I don't. But I like this vintage yarn, and now I have to find something similar to go with it.

This type of mohair yarn is not as popular any more, so it's hard to find. (It was from back in the days when Canadian knitting was mainly influenced by British knitting. I guess mohair is still popular in Britain, but not here in North America.)

I was thinking perhaps Lily Chin Greenwich Village, which is the right weight and has a similar "halo" to it. I'm just not sure about the shine of the nylon. I'm also not sure I can get the right colours to complement the ones I have already. The price at Len's Mill is not bad, but I didn't see the Lime colour there. I can get Lavender, and Tan, and I could try substituting Black for Gray in the pattern, but I'm not sure the wrap would be as pleasing with Black in it, so I am reserving that option for now. Sigh.

Maybe at the knitters fair I'll be able to find some European DK or worsted weight mohair/acrylic in interesting colours. Here's hoping...