A Bluestocking Knits

Last week at Tuesday Morning I was poking through the eyelash and ladder yarns in the knitting bins, and David, standing idly nearby, put his hand in and said, "What about this?"  It was a skein of Queensland Collection's Rustic Merino Sport in a deep foresty/olive-y green.  "Oh, yes," I said, and we managed to find four skeins, and then another in a very handsome plum.  Half off of the sticker price — my word.  I'd not heard of this yarn before, but it feels very good in my hands, light but smooth and strong, something that doesn't shout but sort of waits to be noticed, a Celia Johnson of wool.  I didn't really have any particular projects in mind — perhaps a scarf, or some mitts? possibly both?  So I bought two of each color.

I thought the green would do very well for the Henry scarf from Knitty, but upon swatching I found that the color variations in the wool, which look fairly subtle in the skein, made the herringbone stitch just sort of disappear, and so I have filed "Henry" away for another time (and a more solid color of wool) and decided on Nurmilintu for the plum and Regina Marie for the green.

(This effect fascinates me.  It is mathematically a triangle, with the left side at a 45-degree angle — increasing every other row — and the right at a 60-degree one — increasing every row, but the bias makes the edges curve beautifully in this wave-like manner — "when math and fabric collide!")