Things in Stash

On a recent trip to Pennsylvania, my longtime high school friend Pam introduced me to Peggy. Peggy is in her 90s. She is a talented fiber artist, known mostly for her hooked rugs. We spent an afternoon walking around Peggy’s home. She showed me her beautiful rugs made with wool strips she dyed herself in up to eight shades of a color. She showed me a cedar chest filled with her hand knit sweaters. She showed me a closet of clothes she made herself in silks and suede. She showed me ethnic textiles she collected from her travels abroad, including three years living in Palestine.

Peggy is downsizing to move to Vermont to be closer to family. She is boxing up her stash of fabric and yarn. She opened one of the boxes of fabric. Inside was this:

It is a vintage Kaffe Fassett kit! The tag in the upper right indicates Peggy bought it for £49.00, probably in London.

From what I can tell, it looks as if the kit is intact. There is a pair of straight knitting needles tucked into it.

Peggy is selling off stash to benefit her favorite charity, Hope Flowers School. It is a school in the West Bank near the Israel border.

While this is a lovely kit, the muted colors are not what I typically wear. We looked online. I see Kaffe Fassett kits available for about $225 for a vest. Pam, Peggy, and I are thinking $300 is a fair value for a sweater, since it has more yarn?

If any of my dear readers are interested in this, please send an e-mail to me jolieae@yahoo.com. I can get you in touch with Pam and Peggy. If you took my “Looping Back” class at TKGA’s Next Level Knitting Conference last month and you’d like to practice your modular intarsia skills, this project would be the perfect opus!