A one-pound bag of one ball of “100% unknown fibre” made its way into my stash some time ago. Last night, I considered it and what I might make from it. First, I did a burn test, fully expecting it to be 100% synthetic. When it seemed to be more wool than not, I did it again. Whoopee! My mill-end turns out to be a wool blend that’s more wool than not!!! Since it’s approximately fingering weight, I decided it’s going to be the second passione amorosa shawl I make, but this time it will remain mine all mine!
I cast on this afternoon while sitting in the shade at La Ronde. I don’t think it’ll soon be completed, but that’s normal for me.
The colouration of the yarn is strange. Lengths of light brown, beige and then lengths of ‘spotted’ very dark brown and very light beige each colour being about a half-inch long! I never saw that before. In fact, I didn’t even notice it until I was re-winding the ball to eliminate any knots. Good thing I did; there were several knots, two of which were barely a foot apart! Also good, because lugging a full pound of yarn around isn’t much fun.
I added a stitch to the cast on, resulting in two added stitches after the garter tab was done. They will be my slip-stitch selvedge ‘chain’. i.e. On every row, slip first stitch purlwise, pass yarn between needle tips to continue knitting, and knit last stitch. I suppose I could have just worked it with the existing four stitches of the edge, but I thought that would make the border edge look narrower, since the slipped stitches show only in profile.
15-10-2015
So, I took my time and counted one quarter of it. 129 stitches x 4 = 516 + 3 (the spines) + 10 (border) = only 529 stitches on my second 60” KnitPIcks cable. The first one broke a few days ago; a replacement is in the mail.
I also measure the center spine. Stretched: 25”; relaxed: 23”. I don’t think I’ll be blocking this. I still have quite a bit of yarn from the one-pound. I’ll just keep knitting some more. Eventually, it’ll be big enough.
February 9, 2020
Almost done!! Just over half of the (uncounted) stitches bound off, but not enough yarn left to finish.
To do: rip out the half that’s bound off, tink the last completed row, and cast off on the wrong side. I’ll have a few yards leftover.
This will not be blocked, even though it is mostly wool. I love how textured it is! So, it won’t matter which side I bind off on, because the last few rows are stockinette, and will curl up.
Cast off method: k2; @slip two back onto the left-hand needle; knit two together through the back loop; k1. Repeat from @ until done.
N.B. I’ve learned that - in order to make this the stretchy bind-off it’s supposed to be - all actions need to be done on the full width of the needle, not on the points. This is anything but the speediest of cast offs, at least in my hands.
February 11, 2020
Neverending cast-off DONE!
What’s more, all six ends have been woven in!
Leftover? A very tiny butterfly, just a few yards. 
It’s large enough without being blocked, and Ginette thinks all the texture would be lost were it blocked, so - at least for now - it won’t be blocked.
Maybe someday I’ll count the stitches of the cast off, just to see if I did or didn’t ever lose a stitch or two, but not today.
2020 being my year of working on WIPs, this is the second long-term WIP completed. Umpteen to go!
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