Hiding in plain sight.

My version of the Nicklas Cardigan from MillaMia.

When you work around so much yarn like I do you have to become very hardened to temptation & a sort of 'Yarn Blindness' starts setting in after a while.  Like an addict you start prowling around the mill seeking new yarns, new fibres, new colours - all to feed that need of what is next, new & exciting.

Over the non existent Summer months in Hawkes Bay, I took on a small commission piece for a friend.  Usually I avoid these as I barely have time to do my own knitting, or knitting for Skeinz, but in this case I was caught at an overally generous moment & agreed to knit a toddler cardigan, on the proviso that I had no fixed deadline. I was provided the pattern & as the sex of the child was undetermined, I got free reign on the colours. Merino Soft White, Navy & Lime.

Nicklas Cardigan from MillaMia.com

The pattern (from MillaMia) printed in the May 2011 issue of the Australian WW was designed for 4ply merino - so our Merino Soft fit the bill perfectly.  Now Merino Soft is one of our oldest yarn ranges.  NZ babies have been enveloped by its gentle caress for decades & I hadn't knitted a project in it for years.  So I cast on the project in late Spring & slowing chipped away at it over the holiday months completing it last week.  This is when the revelation happened.  The more I worked on this, the more I kept thinking how good the yarn was to work with.  How soft, great stitch definition, excellent bold colours.  Where on earth had this wonder yarn being hiding?

Swatching & prep work for Cria

Just as I was completing this project I was also swatching for another.  A knit along with a couple of friends of Ysolda Teague's Cria from her book Little Red in the City.  I swatched Prism Limited edition colour Dark Cerise, Harvest's New Leaf, Vintage. All reached the required gauge - just, but they weren't quite right.  Then again, like a blinding light it hit me - Merino Soft.  So  I swatched Merino Soft Barney Purple & the reached the required gauge effortlessly.  How could this be - why have I not seen this yarn before?
Like a blind woman after cataract surgery I was seeing what was right in from of me fresh again in a new radiant light.  Merino Soft 4ply - Hiding in plain sight.