My mission was to choose a skein from my stash and then decide what to make.

Simple, eh?

Well, no – it was surprisingly difficult. For me, anyway. It took longer than I imagined to get to the cast on stage, but my project is now well under way and I thought you might like an update.

The chosen skein was 400 metres of incredibly soft 4 ply, a blend of 70% alpaca, 20% silk, and 10% cashmere, hand-dyed by Coastal Colours, Graham & Lindsey Langhorne of Fleetwood, Lancashire. This was one of my indulgences from my visit to Wonderwool Wales, and – completely defying my well-planned list – the gorgeous colours and texture tempted me to buy it without having a project in mind.

After much deliberation, and taking account of advice to favour garter stitch to avoid pooling of multi-coloured yarn, I chose Nurmilintu by Heidi Alander, a free shawl pattern on Ravelry. Now that the skein is wound into a ball, the colours are more muted than I had anticipated, but it is a delight to knit and I’m happy with my choice so far.

Without this blog challenge, this pretty skein may have been overlooked in favour of a different and predetermined project, and who knows when it might have seen daylight again. The added benefit is that I also discovered several patterns and designers during my mission to find a suitable destination for this yarn, so I have added those to my ‘favourites’ for future reference.

It has been an interesting and exciting challenge, albeit uncomfortable and a bit frustrating at times, starting the journey from the point of view of the yarn instead of the pattern, but I’m glad I’ve had a go, and I’ll definitely do it again!

Have you set yourself a yarn challenge? I’d love to hear about it!