Joining As Kat Knits and the others Ravelers to update my current projects and reading. This week I have cast on a project that has been in my queue for at least a year. It all got started with stashbusting.
At left, take a look at the gold yarn. I have two of these left over from a sweater I made way…… back. Of course I no longer have the label, which tells where I got the yarn and what it’s made of. I do know that it has a large percentage of llama. Like its cousin the alpaca, llama fur is soft to the touch and doesn’t make you itch.
For more than ten years, I have wondered what to do with it. The color is overly rambunctious. It occurred to me that toning it down with neutrals might be the way to go. Hence my choice of Kate Harvie’s pattern, Color Chat – Chunky Version.
It’s an interesting knit. Using a slip-stitch pattern, the yarns are switched every row. This tactic works only when the knitter uses three balls. The neutral companions I chose for my Color Chat vest are Berroco’s Ultra Alpaca Chunky in colorway Light Gray and Wool of the Andes Bulky in colorway Cobblestone Heather. All three yarns are 100% animal fiber, so should play nicely together. Incidentally, Knitpicks now sells Berroco yarns on its site.
As for my reading efforts, I am really all over the map. Nothing currently is under my eyeballs. While on vacation, I picked up Memoirs of a Geisha from the shelf of one of our hosts and got very engrossed. Reluctantly, I left the book with its owner, but delightfully, I found the title at my virtual library so I could finish my read.
This book, written back in the 1990’s, is a novel, but presented as if it were a biography. It’s the tale of a poor Japanese daughter of a fisherman who was sold into servitude to a geisha house in Kyoto. Against all odds, she succeeds in rising through the ranks to become one of the most successful geishas of her time. Keeping within the dramatic romantic narrative, she falls in love with a rich patron who frees her. This book gave me insight into how few options women have in patriarchal societies and what sort of choices must be made just to stay alive.
Linking this post with the March 4 2026 As Kat Knits post.
Daily Fiber 
