Rib and Cable Gaiter, Stash Blanket, and a Foyle's War Project

The completion of Apple Strudel and the Magic Loop socks this week left me with nothing active on the needles.  So I commenced a long-planned project - the knitting up of the many single skeins I bought while in America last year. The Magic Loops socks started this, as they were made from handspun from a New England farmer's market, and so I decided to continue and wound up a single skein of Road to China, a beautiful cashmere, silk and fine wool blend in a berry shade perfect for autumn - it will become a cowl:

The pattern is the Rib and Cable Quarter Gaiter from Leigh Radford's One Skein: 30 Quick Projects to Knit and Crochet and is perfect for slipping into my work bag for a bit of commute knitting.  The skein was bought at the delighfully named Knit and Stitch Equals Bliss, Bethesda, Maryland, just a short metro ride from where I lived in Washington DC.  Bethesda is a pleasant neighbourhood, so nice for a wander around, and when there my attention was caught by the pioneer statue Madonna of the Trail, as this sophisticated shopping area was a departure point for many wagon trains heading west back in the day, and the beginning (or continuation), of many hard lives for women:

Back at home, I cast on from my scrap bag for the Yarn Harlot's Stash Afghan, which she describes in one of her earlier books - simply cast on however many stitches you want, in whatever needle size kind of fits the majority of your yarn, and knit garter stitch rows, cutting the yarn at the end of each row to form a fringe and using a new yarn each row. This project will also cut down my single skeins, although I am not using any American ones for this - just a bag of older remnants.  I started this last night while watching an episode of Foyle's War, where I saw this cardigan:

The cardigan, from the episode A Lesson in Murder, is knitted in a natural or beige colourway, with flowers duplicate stitched (I think) on top, and a very pretty striped border added all round. It's fastened with a pin at the neck. I think I can put something together resembling this, so will dig throught the stash today for enough natural yarn to do the cardigan itself.  Surfing for a picture was easy - there is clearly a big fanbase for Foyle's War and the clothes from it - in fact there is even a Rav group (which I have now joined!)