Yo! Kelly Wins The Celtic Memory Yarn!

I had a lot of fun creating this yarn. It's definitely not a shy, stay-at-home composition, more a get-out-there-and-make-the-world-stare type. It's glitzy, it's festive, and Kelly is going to have a lot of fun with it.



This is now officially logged in my records as Red Branch (K)Nights, but it's a one-off. I created it especially for this KAL and don't intend to make any more (well, not unless you beg...) It's high time I got on with creating the next in the Celtic Festivals range, Midwinter. After all, today is December 1 and if I don't hurry, we'll be past the shortest day and moving into spring!

All very well, but how am I myself getting along with the red sweater that I am supposed to be making, to justify my presence here? Well may you ask. (Well, no, you probably don't, given the saga so far.)

Yesterday I suddenly remembered a sad and grimy cone of 'rescue yarn' which had come out of that stash shed in the woods a while back. It had looked a nice bright fireman's red, but was so covered with dust and fluff and general grime that it was hard to tell.

I went burrowing. I went hunting. I ran it to earth at the bottom of a large see-through container (the see-through capability of course only applies to those yarns ranged round the edge, doesn't it? It doesn't help much when the cone is smack bang in the middle of the box as this one was.) And had you noticed that the yarn you really really want is always in the bottom box of a large and heavy stack?

Maybe you don't understand what I'm on about. Maybe your collection of yarn sits neatly in a small and attractive basket on a little shelf in your living room. Alongside your two pairs of knitting needles.

Maybe. But knowing you lot, I doubt it. Garages? Attics? Basements? Specially-built extensions? Come on, come on, you can tell me. I would really like to know that there is someone out there with a bigger yarn storage problem than mine!

Anyway, back to the poor little rescue red. It was there all right, and a good big fat cone too, which gladdened my heart. I immediately skeined some off and washed it gently. It came up beautifully and dried quickly, which was good because I was already impatient to try a swatch.



Here is the cone, and the just-dried skein in front of it. You can't really see, but the top of the cone is still quite dusty and grimy, while the sides, where the yarn has been wound off, is the true clear bright flame red that I like.

It's a very fine lambswool, so I used it triple to work a swatch for the beautiful Celtic Vest from Elsebeth Lavold (I really do not like the name Cul de Sac given to it by Knitter's). What do you know, it worked perfectly - just the right gauge on a 4mm circular. And so, once again, I have cast on for my own Red Sweater KAL project - the Celtic Vest. The cashmere has been retired to a quiet location for some time. The Starmore book (Fishermen's Sweaters) has gone back downstairs to the knitting section of my library. There is nothing between me and success but time. Time. Not too much of that around chez Celtic Memory at the moment, but we will persevere.

And for those who asked about the Celtic Vest pattern - it was in the Fall 2003 issue of Knitter's and you can order back issues from them here . It's worth buying that issue actually - there are several wonderful things in it.

Anyway, I'm off to spend the rest of the evening working up the back of the Celtic Vest and reading The Devil Wears Prada (no I do not feel like an intellectual evening with Nietzsche and Kant). I might even eat a bar of chocolate.

Starmore? Never heard of her.

And Kelly, your yarn is on the way bright and early tomorrow morning. Let me know what you make with it!