Reclaimed Cashmere

I wasn't satisfied with reclaiming enough cashmere to ply and knit a Virginia cowl. Nooo... I had to go and decide I wanted worsted weight cashmere for a vest. I've been frogging, skeining, plying and washing cashmere for three weeks. I must surely like this process. :)

Here are the sweaters. I started with the first three; dark blue, hunter green and dark teal, all fine gauge.

 

 

At first I thought I'd hold five strands together and work with a DK weight. But when I swatched I thought it was a little too dark. The first color in the sample above is five strands of dark blue, the second color is three strands of dark blue and two strands of teal. I decided to go to the new Goodwill superstore in the next county and look for something lighter to add to the mix.

You can pretty much never go into a thrift store with a particular color or item in mind. But I was gifted the periwinkle blue and sage green cashmere the day I went looking; walked in and found them inside of ten minutes.

 

Before 

 

Here are skeins of the periwinkle and teal in 2 ply before and after washing. You can see how much they relaxed. Some knitters frog and knit as they go but I like to take the time to skein, ply and wash the yarn. It helps the kinks relax and I get a more accurate stitch gauge.

I'm thinking of making this Tuxedo vest. I haven't swatched yet, but I now have enough yarn to hold six strands together for a worsted weight. I need 700 yards.

What I have is 300 yards of 2 ply in five colors, more than enough. I can see the color play in my mind, but this is new to me so I'm going on instinct. I decided to draft a color sample.

Now that's cool. Time to knit a new swatch. This whole thing may not turn out the way I hope, but I'm learning a lot, and... nothing ventured, nothing gained.