Thirty Stitches

Knit Textures
Blue Sky Alpacas’ Organic Cotton (l-r: Bone, Espresso, Willow, Sage)

Thirty stitches. That’s how many I cast onto my size 9 (US) straights. Thirty stitches. If you do the math, that means I’ve got quite a few possibilities for texture and pattern blocks to make up my scrummy organic cotton throw. So far, I’ve combined 5 (bone), 6 (willow and sage) and 15 (espresso) stitch patterns. Believe it or not, I’ve got my eye on a 30 stitch leaf motif that should be quite striking.

Originally, my plan was to create four squares since I settled on four colors of yarn, which is, by the way, some of the most deliciously soft, plump cotton I’ve ever tried. You may have read about it like I did at Knit and Tonic. Wendy showed a basket full of the sportweight version of this yarn, whereas I opted for the plumper worsted weight. I kid you not. This is the softest, most pet-worthy cotton yarn I’ve ever touched. No “rough and ready” business here.

Ah, but I digress. I was at “four squares, four colors.” As I looked through various stitch dictionaries, I realized just how foolish I was to limit myself – especially after doodling with a few different stitch-number scenarios and hitting on 30 as “just right!” I’ve picked out eight patterns and will assign each color one of two options. That should provide enough textural diversity and, along with the approximately 1200 yards of yarn, quite a patchwork of 16″ x 8″ strips: soft enough and varied enough to make for an interesting knit.

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