WIP/RIP: a surprise

(For those that aren’t familiar with the term, WIP means Work In Progress!)

This was actually the first project that I took out, with the intention of ripping it out – it’s a cashmere tank, meant as long underwear, that I started in 2007! Thank goodness for Ravelry notes, I should probably update my notebook more often…

Anyway, I pretty much finished it except for the armhole trims, but I just wasn’t feeling it. The yarn is Habu laceweight cashmere, held double – I think I had bought 5 tiny skeins. It wasn’t quite enough, and the body was too short. But the yarn was super duper soft and light, so I started ripping.

I took out the shoulders (three needle bind off) and ripped out the upper front and back, then looked at it and thought…there’s all this knitting in this piece, can I turn it into something else? It has a bit of waist shaping, but I decided it would make a perfectly lovely plain cowl. Ravelry to the rescue again – I didn’t know what needle size I’d used but I actually had it on the project page! Whew.

So it’s back on the needles now and I’ve knit an inch or so. I’ll go until I’m almost out of yarn, then knit a couple garter ridges before binding off. I’m really inspired by Alabama Chanin stuff right now (I’ve been devouring the third book and plotting my summer sewing) so I might actually do some embroidery or other embellishment on the fabric when it’s done. I was pretty surprised at myself for continuing on with this yarn, after all the intention was to have fewer projects on the needles! But the other projects I ripped out were pretty pleasing on that end, and who doesn’t need a cashmere cowl?

P.S. I did an interview with Michelle Treese last week – you can read it here!