Oh, wow.
That's what I said when I opened the envelope with this yarn in it. Just: OH, WOW!
This is a Handmaiden yarn that's in "testing' right now, as far as I know it's only available from Colorsong Yarns (my favorite source for Fleece Artist and Handmaiden yarns!) on this page. It's called Casbah 5 and is a worsted/aran weight version of their popular Casbah sock yarn. A thicker blend of merino, cashmere, and nylon sounds awesome, right? Well it's even better in person that it sounded from the description!
The yarn has a gorgeous sheen to it that makes it look like it's part silk. It's incredibly soft, so soft it feels like it has more than just 10% cashmere in it (an amount that's really kind of a joke if you think about it!). And the colors! The color is really what did me in. You know how I am with colors . . .
When I saw this yarn go up at Colorsong (did you know that they have a blog you can subscribe to that tells you when they add new stuff?) I immediately hopped over and had a little meltdown about what color to order. I kind of really wanted the Dandelion color, but the whole gray/yellow thing has been so overdone that I was afraid I'd knit something out of it and forever see it as out of style. Then I thought I might get the Rose, but remembered that I currently have 3 projects with pink in them, so it seemed like a bad idea to add more pink to the stash. I considered a few other colors before settling on this Flagstone colorway, which I chose thinking it would be neutral enough to wear often but not too boring to knit . . . and when it arrived I knew I was right!
I'm swatching with it right now and will do a full report once I wash and block the swatch. I got 4 skeins which I think is enough for a pullover with at least elbow-length sleeves, and I already have a sketch of what it may become . . .
Oh and the baby blanket? I'm finishing the last few rows of it tonight. Going to write up the pattern, knit it again from the instructions (probably going to make the second one in a boy color, I think the design is neutral enough), and then I should have it up for sale soon! And yes, that's "soon" in my relative sense of the word . . .
4 Responses
Oiyi
Oh my, I love purple and it’s so gorgeous!
New Cabled Cowl Design — Chiagu
[…] I’ve been knitting pretty much exclusively for the last 2 weeks: a new cowl design with that Handmaiden Casbah 5 that I posted about when it arrived. I was so inspired by the cowls on the Fall 2009 Burberry RTW […]
Julie
oh wow, is right- that is gorgeous yarn!!
Melanie
August 24, 2009
Goodness, how beautiful! And no, I didn’t know about Colorsong’s blog: thanks for sharing! Keep us updated… Happy knitting!