Third Times the Charm

A few skeins of cotton yarn might have also come home with me from Shepard's Harvest.  I had an idea for what to do with it. 

Picture by Sheryl Thies

I found this wrap years ago and loved its look for summer.  It is a part of a collection by Sheryl Thies in her book Nature's Wrapture and the wrap's name is Waterfall.  Mom had gone to a knitting event in her area last year, won this book and passed it on to me.  (The pattern is also found for free on Ravelry, here.)   I remembered the wrap used cotton yarn and found just the cotton I wanted at Shepard's Harvest.

Interlacement makes Cabled Cotton using a complicated process that cables the strands of cotton in a way shown in the photo above.  The hanks have a generous 270 yards/248 meters of mercerized cotton.  I am using a sized 7 needle to knit the Waterfall pattern giving me the kind of fabric I want.  The colourways are Reds Plus and another in Black.  The black looks more like a purple/dark gray rather than black, but the two skeins work together well.  In my wrap the variegated reds are being changed out for the solid "black" every two rows, a process that is creating a beautiful colour flow.

An almost cake at the bottom and my hand wound on top

Problems started coverting the hanks into cakes.  The hanks had been handled quite a bit (perhaps explaining why they were only $6 each). Getting the Reds Plus hank properly set on my swift was the first problem.  Then there was something not working quite right with the ball winder as well.  It took third times of starting to make a cake and then putting it back on the swift before finally achieving something that looks like a cake.  I decided it would be smart to just wind the second hank by hand.

Waterfall is not a difficult pattern; it contains a simple six-row repeat.  But for reasons I cannot explain it took me three times of starting to get the pattern down so it looked as it should.  Perhaps the first two attempts were swatches I should have done.  At any rate, here is my version of Waterfall so far.

My version of Waterfall so far

I did pick up some clasps that look very much like the ones in the sample photo above.  They are even in a silver colour.  When it is all said and done the clasps will be as expensive as the yarn, and I purchased those clasps at a bargain price.  But they are in Minneapolis, so the finishing touches will take place there.

Waterfall will show up again when all 540 yards of this yarn are knit; until then I will keep in mind on this project the third time is the charm.  (Perhaps the clasps will need to be placed or sewn on three times as well.)

PS~~These photos were taken on our freshly power washed front steps.  For the last three days Paul and I have tag-teamed the washing to get to this point.