on the needles

Needless to say- between the broken arm in January and moving into a new house in March- I haven't done much knitting this year. But I've been keen to get back into it not only because I have a few projects I'd like to see completed this year, but also because I missed it terribly!



So last week I cast on some deliciously soft and snuggly cashmere for the Irish Hiking Scarf, which is a gift for my sister. It is actually several gifts- I bought the yarn for her birthday last summer, knitted the swatch for her Christmas gift, and she'll get to see the work-in-progress for her birthday this month. Yeah, cashmere is pricey, so that was the only way to do it. Things are going well though, and I hope to have it finished well before the cold weather hits in Minnesota.



In honor of the great efforts on my part to procure the perfect yarn in the perfect shade of golden camel-ish tan (who knew it was so difficult to find this color in 100% cashmere?), and knit it into the perfect cabled scarf for her, Tammy got me these fabulous Lantern Moon needles on which to make the magic happen. This is my second pair of LM's, and I could not be happier with them. The other pair were also purchased for a specific project, and stay with my Lizard Ridge afghan, which is (still) in progress.



This scarf has been a lot of fun to knit so far- not only is the cashmere just like butter, but the cables have been a blast- thanks to this tutorial from Grumperina on cabling without a cable needle. If you knit cables, or have ever wanted to, give this method a try. You will never want to go back to using a cable needle or DPN to hold your stitches again. It's really quite easy after a few tries and makes cabling so much more enjoyable.