I'm paving the road with fiber ...

Wool or Cotton?
Which will it be? Maybe BOTH?

I've been knitting all week and also doing some planning for a couple of major projects.

One knit. One Crochet.

Seriously making plans and even buying or ordering the yarn.

I bet you didn't think I was really serious about the crochet, right? Well I really did fall in love with that blanket I showed you in a previous post. So I had to work out what I was going to use and how much I needed, etc.

So first I swatch up a hexagon with Cascade 220 Wool. And it looked nice and I got 5" instead of 4". And that would be okay because it's for a Queen size bed. I ordered 10 colors and while I was waiting for it to arrive I got to remembering how heavy a worsted weight blanket or bedspread could be. I've got a beautiful bedspread stored away right now that is just too heavy to sleep under. So I better rethink this. And not too worry, I can use the Cascade 220 for something else.

In which case, my desire to knit up an Arabesque Blanket was born.

I then checked out the yarn orginally called for in the pattern ... Rowan Cotton Glaze. Which is about $7.50 each skein (at WEB's it's $4.19 but that's only for 2 colors at closeout). And since I needed 87 skeins at $7.50 a skein ... well $630.00 for a bedspread was beyond the cost I preferred to spend on a bedspread. Especially if I still had to make it myself. So I checked out Reynolds Soucy Sport at WEBS and $3.25 a skein was a lot more practical, let alone the fact that they had more than the 12 colors I needed. Well I've decided to work in 15 colors in all. This is for a Queen bed and I what it to be more like a bedspread rather than a blanket you see.

Some of the colors have came in already.

Waiting just for 3 more ... and I've already made 5 hexagons.
They blocked to 4" pefectly! This is going to be a really colorful bedspread. No?

Then I swatched for the Arabesque Blanket.

But I'm not happy with that center. See how it came out?
I'm going to have to redo that. But I did like the way it knit up otherwise. I see that it's where the two end sides came together that didn't work out right.

Other than the blankets ... I do have an FO.

I did a Capitan Hat for my sister, Cindy for this next Christmas. I can tell you about it and show it to you also because #1 Cindy doesn't read my Blog and #2 She doesn't even have a computer. But I know she'll love this hat. How do I know? Well, she told me she had lost her favorite pink hat on the way back home after visiting with the family at Christmas. Lost in one of the airports she thinks. And then asked me if I would knit her a hat some time. She loves the ones with a visor she said. There you go! [You and your daughter might like to do this is one, Sandy. It's a quick knit and it came out so cute.]

And even tho there are plenty of projects on the needles now, I'm also knitting a Ruffled Scarf (the ruffles will be on the 2 ends) on the Commuter Rail every day ... for good mindless knitting.

So back to some happy, yet mindful knitting ... with cashmere.