Cashmere Throw #2

Left unattended, my creative interests can tend to complicate my life, so I am trying, trying to simplify. This year I decided that I would narrow my wool purchasing to cashmere for making blankets. Cashmere-hunting at Amman's used clothing market ups the challenge as it is harder to find. My average find on a Friday morning is about six or seven cashmere sweaters of varying quality and color. By December I had enough to entertain the thought of making a cashmere throw for my parents. It would be a little-bit-late Christmas present as I sent it back with Active Son when he returned to school a little over a week ago.

I followed the same procedure that I used for my first cashmere throw. This throw measures 74 by 72 inches and I used eight sweaters to make it--the colors co-ordinate with my parents' living room furnishings.

When I sent it too my mom, I joked with her that she and my dad would have to share it. She wrote back that they had worked out a schedule: she will have it Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and my dad, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. They will share it as they curl up to watch Downton Abbey on Sunday!

I used some cashmere scraps to make these flax seed bags so that  the kids would have our version of a hot-water bottle to warm their cold sheets at night. These flax seed bags hold six cups of flax seed and take about four minutes to heat in the microwave. I've put the flax seed in cotton liners, which are then covered with the cashmere case.

I'm starting to use my huge stash of "other wool": this week I cut and laid out a lambswool blanket that I am making as a wedding gift for a dear friend's son and his new bride. I think blankets may be my thing for awhile. Simplify.