Keeping In Touch

Oh my. I think I exceeded even my own expectations about spending money at Stitches. Here comes another contribution to Doctors Without Borders to balance my karma. But there was all the pretty… I think that Rachael of Yarn-A-Go-Go said it best:

It's kind of being a kid again at Disneyland, isn't it? I want! I want everything, and look at this, and what about that, and that's my favorite thing EVER, and I'M TIRED I DON'T WANT TO BE HERE ANYMORE and oooooh, pretty, I want that!

Of course, this kid had a credit card and no parental supervision.

The damage: Five bags of 50% off Garnstudio Camelia which I’m told may be discontinued and that is a crying shame, one bag of 50% off Uruguay DK, a darning needle case made of wood, a lapis necklace*, buttons for a woefully neglected cardigan,** six skeins of a 20% off lovely moss-green merino DK whose name I forget, and a 10% off impulse skein of a novelty yarn (Kid Slique but in a new colour not shown in that link that looks almost exactly like a black magpie feather; mainly plain black with shots of shiny dark purple, blue and green.). Whew.

Y’all may not care about this, but for my own personal interest here’s what I plan:

• Gray-purple (I’d call it “dead lilacs”) Camelia (10 skeins): Alice Starmore’s Cromarty.
• Lovely juicy reddish purple Camelia (10 skeins): Undecided. It would make an excellent stole/shawl thing, though. Or a thneed.
  
• Deep slightly grayish blue Camelia (10 skeins): Perhaps this cardigan (designed for this yarn! And I think this picture might actually be the exact colour I have! I am slightly ashamed. I almost never make things in the colour (or yarn) in the pattern)
• Charcoal grey heather Camelia (20 skeins): A gansey for R:tAG, maybe one I design myself. Yep, another gray sweater. And I’m only half done the MMBR*** sweater for him!
• Magpie-wing Kid Slique (1 skein): It’s so pretty! I’m letting it marinate, petting it occasionally, until I decide whether to make a thin scarf out of just it, a more substantial scarf out of it and a plain black yarn, or a more substantial scarf out of it and a white yarn to go with a more obvious magpie reference. Maybe striped lengthways – two black stripes framing the white center stripe? But then I’m afraid it will look more skunky than magpie-ey, especially here in magpie-less CA. What do you, the viewers at home, think?
• Uruguay DK (10 skeins of crimson): Kate Gilbert's Equestrian Blazer. I lurve this design, though I hope my colour choice doesn’t end up reading as “Tally ho for a spot of fox-hunting, eh what?”
• Moss green merino by I-can’t-remember (6 skeins): I'd like to make Elsebeth Lavold’s Liv but I’m worried about running out and that design doesn’t really lend itself to the standard hamburger-helper tricks like striping or making the ribbing, collar and cuffs in a different colour. I'll have to see if I can find more.
  

Of course, this gets added to the twenty-odd projects already on the flight deck. Note that these are not started, just ready to go. But the lure of starting something new instead of finishing things up is so strong that knitters have a word for it; “startitis”. I’d blame the spring weather, but I’d be lying.

I already have the MMBR sweater, a lace shawl, a baby blanket and a pair of socks actually in progress. And, <<ahem>> I may have started Cromarty already and done one skein’s worth of it. Just to see if I’d have enough of the Camelia yarn, which I won’t**** so I have to order more, and I have to do that wit’ a quickness, as the kids say, if they’re discontinuing this yarn and/or colour.

OK. I will at least finish the baby blanket and the front of the MMBR before I cast on anything new. Pinky swear.

So. What's new with you?

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* Not all the vendors sell fiber, some sell pretty shiny things. Argh. It should just be called the “Make Amy Spend Money Festival.”

** This design, Ljod, is the one I alluded to looking like a Jetson’s outfit and that I was going to rip out. I’ve become a bit fonder of it, though, and I think I’ll try re-working the shoulders which were the most egregious part. The wool that I used didn’t drape like the recommended wool-silk blend, so the shoulder caps turned into these 1980’s-puffy-Gibson-girl-leg-of-mutton things that are not flattering to my line-backer shoulders, to say the least. I still don’t know about the flared hem in the crisper wool, but at least I’ll fix the shoulders and re-evaluate it.

*** Miles and Miles of Bloody Ribbing.

**** I was pretty sure I wouldn’t; the stated yardage is ~1875 yards and I had 1750. Which I would normally say might be possible, but everyone who’s made this says that the given yardage is way low and they all ran out. Sure ‘nuff, one ball took me almost exactly one quarter up the front. The usual formula is 1/3 for the front, 1/3 for the back and 1/3 for both sleeves. The math is left as an exercise for the reader.