mulberryshoots

At Thanksgiving break, my granddaughter, Anna, and I had lunch. I had brought a few knitted neck scarves for her to try on. Without a moment’s hesitation, she picked up a blue handspun piece with bobbles and uneven yarns. I had knitted it from yarn called, “Sherlock Holmes” for some reason. I haven’t figured out why it was called that, but we both liked it.

Later, I bought another skein to make a similar cowl for her mother, my eldest daughter. I gave that one to her at our Christmas Eve party – and she wore it during her stay at their Gloucester house where her BFF remarked, “what’s that thing you’re wearing around your neck?”

So, yep, you guessed it. I made one for BFF who sounded like she loved it when she received it in the mail from me in January. Now, we had three outfitted in this yarn. In early Spring, that’s end of March around here, I thought it might be interesting to knit a vest for myself. Two thirds of the way through, I ran out of yarn. The yarn spinner sent me some more at a discounted price. I ran out again – and she sent me some more.

Easter came early this year so I spent a lot of time cleaning the house and cooking. Afterwards, I finally put the pieces I already had to figure out how to finish the vest. I like to knit extemporaneously, which means that I knit until I either pull it apart to start over or I improvise as I go along. It’s never been my strong suit to follow written directions.

Recently, I managed to finish it, adding side panels and braiding ties for the front rather than buttons that would just get lost in the wool. I was going for an updated hip designer look. Still don’t know what Sherlock Holmes has to do with it, but it adds a note of mystery to the whole thing!

Footnote: Since I published this post, I wrote to the yarn spinner to ask her why she named the yarn, “Sherlock Holmes.” It turns out that this literary character made up by Arthur Conan Doyle, only wore shades of browns, blues and whites – and this is the combination of colourways that appear in the finished yarn. Mystery solved!