About Cashmere

A couple of months ago, I received the newsletter from The Plucky Knitter announcing they were releasing a new yarn based called Plucky Bello.  You will not find it on their site, probably, because they don't hold much stock of it... But you can certainly see what it is about, here in the Ravelry yarn page.
They offered it in a couple of updates (updates are the "events" when a famous dyer uploads all their stock of yarn for sale -whether if it is already dyed or for preorder-, and people go crazy buying all they can as soon as they can), and I was lucky enough to get me some 3 skeins in a really gorgeous, gorgeous colorway.

Plucky Bello in colorway Good Ol' Pip

 What stroke me about this yarn was the high content of cashmere in it, since it has no less than 45%!

Well, let me say that you can definitely tell this is half-cashmere.  It is really really so soft and yummy!  The base is a fingering weight, slightly on the shorter side regarding yardage, since the put up is only 380 yards (compared to most fingering yarns I am used to, which are over 400), but is does bloom really nicely when knit up, so you could also use it for patterns which call for sport weight.

The color was quite a surprise, since my monitor is a little bit crazy (cheap laptop's fault), and I thought this was a perfect gray.  But if you can see the true color (if your monitor is OK), it is actually a lilac-gray, so subtle, so beautiful! 

After finishing other projects I had in my queue, I started working on a small pullover pattern, which is nearly done.  I had to be very minimalistic with it, since 3 skeins of this are not taking me too far... So I finished the body with a wee bit over 2 skeins, and I have now 93 grams to work the sleeves.  I'd rather show you some really nice pics when it's done, so here's my swatch, and you can check out some i-phone pics of the WIP in my Ravelry page: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/jojilocat/bello

I hope I can have a pattern for this soon!  I am really enjoying it a lot!

After working with this yarn, I came to realize how much I've loved working on all my projects which involved a yarn with some cashmere in it.  I know, that's no surprise, but silk is also luxurious, and I don't enjoy it that much...  Or even alpaca, I love it, but cashmere is different...  Maybe it is the small fuzzy halo?  You know, most people hate halo, cause it means that the garment is going to pill, but I actually think it's lovely.  I just try to remember that the softer and finer the fiber, the more likely it is to pill.

I have been trying to remember how often I knit with this fiber, and I thought I'd show you my cashmere-content projects:

Imagine When,worked in Sundara's Fingering Merino-Cashmere

 

Even Flow, worked in The Plucky Knitter's Primo Sport

To Infinity and Beyond, worked in String Theory's Caper Sock

Dragonflies, worked in Lioness Artes MCN DK

Aaaaand that's all!  OK, I think I need more cashmere stuff in my future...  Off to stalk my own stash.

Have a great week!

~Joji