Rogue

I can barely remember a time when I didn't long to knit Rogue. I finally bought the pattern about a year ago, and since then I've been wrestling with what yarn to use.

For a long time, I thought I'd use the colorgrown black Blue-Faced Leicester yarn that I've been hoarding. It is the softest, fluffiest BFL I've ever seen--and many, many kilos have passed through this house, from various vendors. I have a kilo of it that I've been saving for just the right project, and I thought Rogue was it.

Then I realized that the cables might not show up that well in a black yarn. And since I haven't done much cable work, I should probably use a lighter-colored yarn so that I wouldn't go blind trying to figure out my inevitable mistakes. I already seem to be on the fast track to bifocals, so no sense in making it worse.

I thought about dyeing my own yarn. Not variegated--Rogue needs a plainer yarn, to show its cables to best advantage. But I thought I might do a solid or semi-solid. However, the more I browsed other people's Rogues on Ravelry, the more I wanted something tweedy. Or maybe heathered.

I considered Bartlett Rangeley, which sounded like it might be on the coarse, scratchy side, but the price was right and I really liked the Blackberry colorway. I remembered Blackberry Ridge's heathered lines--they had beautiful spring and autumnal heathers that I always admired, but never bought. Alas! They have discontinued their heathers, due to lack of interest. I have never been one to stash sweater quantities of yarns, but I might have to start, lest any other longtime favorites disappear into oblivion.

My Rogue fantasies finally settled on Queensland Kathmandu Aran. As luck would have it, it's also been discontinued. Still, I hung onto my little dream, and stalked people's Ravelry stashes in an unhealthy way.

All that OCD behavior may have paid off. I found two people who were willing to part with their Kathmandu. One lovely person offered to send me a snippet of the yarn, since I can't tell which of the myriad online photos has the most accurate color of it. The other person has the colorway that I love best, at least on screen. So that batch should be on its way to me soon, and I may buy the other lot as well. I've learned my lesson--your sweater stash can never be too big.