FO | Flashpoint Bright & Bold

Yarn has a mind of its own.

For way-too-many years a large quantity of beautiful bulky weight merino has lingered in my stash. When a dear friend saw me admiring it in the LYS, she gave me some as a birthday gift and I soon acquired more with the intention of making a bright, cozy sweater.

Over the years, I've swatched, knitted, frogged, wound and reswatched this yarn more times than I care to count.

Finally, that persistence has paid off. Let me introduce you to Flashpoint:

Once I landed on a stitch, strategy and final design, this afghan flew off the needles. From start to finish, it took 4.5 weeks to make. As a relatively slow knitter with very limited knitting time, that's remarkably fast.

Even more remarkable is the fact that timeframe includes nearly a week of swatching plus time to finish a pre-existing WIP. (To avoid slipping into startitis again, I'm diligently limiting the number of projects on the needles at any given time.)

It also includes time spent weaving ends. Realistically, there weren't that many, but this is a task I like to tackle with care and patience to maintain reversibility and make sure the back is as attractive as the front.

Deduct these diversions from the timeline and this project was off the needles in about 3 weeks. For many of you, that would be no big deal, but for me it's incredibly fast.

Flashpoint | Bright & Bold

Yarn: Korall (Laines du Nord), Torino Bulky (Tahki, discontinued)

Weight: Chunky/Bulky

Yardage: 800 yards +/-

Needles: US 11 (8 mm)

Size: S (approx. 28 x 36 ins)

Ravelry notes:  Here 

Related posts: Here and here

Initially, I was concerned bulky yarn might be heavy or unwieldy, but the opposite is true. The finished piece has great drape and is surprisingly light, one of many wonderful benefits of merino fibers. As an added bonus, I was able to work on this in perfect comfort during the height of summer's heat, because the modular approach kept the project manageable and contained.

Some serious shawl knitting is still on the horizon, but while I sort out the particulars, it feels good to have fiber running through my fingers, streaming out of the stash and becoming something useful and appealing.

This project was so rewarding, before the last ends were woven, I chose a radically different but equally stubborn stash yarn and began swatching for another. That version (Flashpoint Blue) has also moved forward at a swift and satisfying pace. 

Meanwhile, two more yarn clusters have crept out of the cupboards to vie for inclusion in a third. For me, this speedy knit offers such significant stashbusting potential, it may well mark a dramatic turning point in my ongoing efforts to wrangle the yarny hordes into submission.

And that's a tantalizing prospect indeed.


FYI

For those who've inquired, this pattern is now available.