Newton’s at Stitches West last February was selling a 60/40 cashmere/merino blend that was really soft, and not all such blends are; this one lived up to its description, and to knit up a shawl in it was going to cost under fifteen bucks.   I carefully held the skeins up against each other in the light because the dyelots at that booth tend to be…random.   But not a problem with the ones I was looking at.

One was a charcoal gray.  It was clear to me that the cashmere used for it had been natural brown, and the result is slightly towards the earthy side.  Nothing particularly exciting, but I had had times the previous year where I’d needed guy colors in my stash and didn’t have them.

So.  Saturday I got a package from Lisa Souza with her Giverny colorway in baby alpaca laceweight and her Ruby, slightly subdued in how it came out in her baby alpaca/silk.  Gorgeous, both.  Today I got a package from Tina at Blue Moon Fiber Arts: Geisha in Oma Desala and Potomac.  I’m tempted to think of them as, Oma (doesn’t that mean Grandma?) Desala (of the–salad?  Of the salt?  Help me out here, Tina), and Makes-Me-Homesick for my beloved river.  Lovely, lovely colorways, and I’m dying to dive straight in to all four yarns at once.

Saturday I also happened to ask the next recipient on my list what colors she liked best.  It took her a moment to get what was coming next, and then I laughed at her hey, wait a minute! reaction.

Well, then.  Black.  She liked black.

I had that coming–I asked.  You over there with the bad eyes and the knitting needles, I hear you groaning too.

I had this in my stash.  And you know it’s soft enough, definitely.  Can we call this light black?  But I also have black dye, and overdyeing charcoal to get black, if it doesn’t take totally evenly, who could tell or care?  I’ve been debating between going ahead with the Jacquard Acid or asking if she’d rather I left it as is.  I guess I’ll give her a call.   Communication is a good thing.  You know that what I should have done was to dye it before I started knitting away at it.

But darn, all those new colors are communicating, too, way too loud: knit ME!  No, ME!

Waitcher turn, kids.  All in good time. I’ll get you, my pretties, and your little dog-eared pattern scribblings too.