What would you do with 975 grams of forty-year-old Italian alpaca?Fortunately for me, one of the regular knitters in the yarn shop (and I'm sorry I've forgotten who) answered, "Knit anything you want." Good answer.
But first, you may be wondering where did I find such a find? My husband's step-mom, Karen, graciously passed along to me the knitting supplies that belonged to her mother, Katrina. This was a couple years ago when Katrina (in her mid-90s) was downsizing to an assisted living situation. I received three items: a brown and black coat that needed to be seamed together, a half-knit grey alpaca coat, and some beautiful but slightly scratchy blueberry wool. The coat went to the Atlanta Knitting Guild UFO auction last year, where it was won by someone who is a professional finisher. I know Donna will finish it, wear it, and look fabulous in it. I found the perfect buttons for the blueberry wool, but don't yet know what it wants to be. And then there's the grey (NOT gray) alpaca.
Since some of it is already knitted, I weighed it. 975 grams. That's right, about 2 full pounds. The label says "Milano" and "Italy." 39 balls of this stuff. I have no idea how much length. Some of it will need to be frogged. And it was knit on size 10 1/2 needles with two stands held together. Soft. Fluffy. Thick. Ooooo.
So, I started thinking about the "Sampler Afghan" from the cover of Melissa Leapman's Cables Untangled. And I started thinking about the Lily Chin reversible cables (see Cuddly Hubby Hat). And I took a class two days ago on double (reversible) knitting with Lucy Neatby. 
And I have a quilt book from 1994, Round Robin Quilts by Pat Maixner Magaret & Donna Ingram Slusser. And I've recently acquired the Great American Afghan and the Great American Aran Afghan, both from XRX Books.I am thinking more and more that there may be a cable border extravaganza in the future for this very large pile of cushy grey alpaca. Bella.
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