I’m really enjoying knitting my afghan in progress with Fishermen’s wool.
The color of this yarn is brown heather. This yarn is affordable. On Amazon, this particular brand/color costs $9.76 for 465 yards. However, I’m able to purchase it for about $6 locally. I take advantage of the 50% and 55% coupons and snap them up at A.C. Moore. Quite a few of my purchased wool skeins cost much more and for less yardage! Fishermen’s Wool by Lion Brand Yarns is a new to me yarn. Yes, I’ve seen it for several years, however, I never purchased it until the end of last year. I haven’t completed anything with it yet… it’s currently being utilized in two projects.
Besides its affordability, I would also classify it as one of the ‘sturdier wools.’ I have found bits of hay within the yarn, which adds to it’s ‘rustic’ appearance, but I just fish out those pieces and continuing to knit with the yarn. Finding the occasional bits of hay reminds me of the random pieces of straw that I occasionally encounter when spinning my raw fiber into hand-spun yarn.
This wool is also 100 virgin wool and so some of the lanolin remains within the yarn. I like that since I can feel the lanolin on my hands as I knit.
How am I using this yarn? Well, this knit in progress is destined to be another garter stitch afghan. It’s the simplest stitch to make and since I’m using my Hiya Hiya circular needles (size 11) it’s just knit stitch until I stop.
Well… I do slip the first stitch so I can create these neat rows, but other than that it’s just miles and miles of knitting. 😉
But before I rack up the miles, I’ll need to stock up on the yarn. Why? I’m down to my last skein of yarn, see? Which means that I’ll have to purchase more tomorrow. AC Moore has this in stock and so I’ll be stopping by there to purchase a few skeins. When I have some downtime, I’ll rewind each skein. That’s the perfect way to discover potential knots and then place them in their storage container that has scraps of raw wool fiber scented with lavender essential oil and lemongrass and pull the yarn cakes out as needed.
Small Blessings
Because the needles are so large, I’m finding that I’m not experiencing any wrist pain. Lifting items with my left arm are still not to be done and lifting above my head will bring on the pain. I’m not rushing anything and am thankful for what I can do. As a Christian, I’m reminded to give thanks for all things, but even if I wasn’t, staying positive sure beats complaining. I’ve been around people that seemingly always have a negative cloud about them and at times it can wear upon you.
Today was cool and so I was able to utilize the blanket that I just finished. It’s draped over my legs.
What are my knitting goals for the year? I want to have knit three afghans before 2019 rolls around. After this one, I have one more to complete. My third afghan will be knitting a log cabin afghan.
The above blanket is a colorful inspiration for myself. This one was done by Staci Perry of Very Pink. More on the log cabin afghan that I’ll be knitting, the book I purchased specifically about these types of afghans in a later post.