or the story of a few skeins of some discontinued Bainin.
When Littlest was in grade seven, I volunteered after school helping to start up a knitting club. The teacher had a bag of donated yarn to use and we started the first meeting by making knitting needles.
While the kids glued beads on top of their homemade needles I had a look through the yarn bag. I think the teacher saw my jaw drop a few inches when I pulled a few skeins of Alice Starmore Bainin out from the expected bargain basement acrylic and held it up.
"Who donated these?" I asked.
"I have no idea. This bag has been kicking around for a while."
I looked through for more treasures, keeping the Bainin close at hand.
"Would you like it? That yarn you haven't released from your iron grip you're holding?"
The teacher was a beginner knitter and wasn't acquainted with the quality of some wool versus others. I wasn't going to inform her either, at least not at this moment. (Okay, I confess I did tell her about it but she remained unimpressed.)
She shrugged, "Take it"
So the Bainin ended up in my knitting bag and waited there for the right pattern for a few more years. It was clearly earmarked for a hat/scarf combo yardage-wise but it is not particularly soft until it has been washed several times and who wants a scratchy scarf?
So finally,
it became the Tryst Cropped Vest.
Normally I don't go near cropped patterns because I usually have to add a few inches to regular patterns - most are cropped on me. But something about this one stuck. I feel very Jane Austen in it (jeans not withstanding)
It is such a beautiful warm day for November that for once I am not freezing my toes taking photos outside.
Mother Nature has already brought us a little of this, for the first time this year.
Snow. So these days are not to be missed by staying indoors.
It was my wedding anniversary yesterday. I remember 23 years ago it was similarly warm. I had made a special off-white jacket to wear with my dress for outdoor photos and I didn't need it at all.
Well, off to the woods to gather more kindling to prepare for the cold, which is inevitably riding the heels of this unseasonably warm treat. One can never have enough vests or kindling.
