In a change of pace, I have so much to update on, I don’t even know where to start! And I probably won’t finish before I have to bolt to go shopping with my sis, so I should get started.
First, last week I fell off the yarn budget wagon when I stopped at my favorite LYS, Handmade. (It’s a mere seven minutes from the facility currently housing little baby Grace, which makes it way too easy to stop in before or after my visits.) I spent an hour there, going through the whole shop again and again until I found the perfect yarn and the perfect colors to make a gift for one of my dearest friends. The yarn is half silk, half alpaca (don’t have the labels handy), and the colors, while a little softer than I’d envisioned, are still in the range of said friend’s color-leanings (can’t go into more details, just in case). And it feels like buttery clouds sliding through my fingers! Oh my, but I adore this yarn!
At first, the project did not go as planned. I started a pattern from The Happy Hooker that I thought would be perfect, and was half finished (half!) when I decided it was just the wrong pattern for this glorious yarn–the gauge was too tight and you couldn’t feel the softness of the fibers. So–I still can’t believe I had the guts to do it–I frogged it, and switched to a more traditional, far looser, knit pattern, involving garter and drop stitch. Best decision ever, which is heartening after taking such a risk as frogging half a project. I finished knitting it last night, surrounded by many friends for Craft Night (which deserves its own paragraph(s)), and will probably do the end-weaving tomorrow while I’m trapped on a plane.
Ok, my sister is calling me so I have to go, but soon, I shall share more–more about yarn shopping (when I fall off a wagon, I fall hard enough to crack a sidewalk!), Craft Night, neat articles in the latest magazines, and indoctrinating a new knitter. Happy Saturday!