Weekend, part 1: Webs

Since not staring at yarn felt so strange last weekend, it was really a relief to go to the Webs sale on Saturday with some of the SnBers! We stopped at the Yarn Garden's anniversary sale on the way up. I was sure I'd been there, but it turned out that I was thinking of somewhere else, because the store was new to me. We weren't there for yet long (just long enough for a lightweight arbor over the front door to fall on me, and not because I knocked it over either! I really have the worst ability to attract falling object--during our bike ride on Sunday, 2 nuts or twigs or somethings fell out of the trees and hit me in the face! There were a lot of trees, but it seems statistically unlikely that I'd be hit by two falling things, doesn't it?)

Anyway--I survived the attack of the killer arbor, but didn't buy anything at Yarn Garden, because I still have (or rather, had) most of the Webs gift certificate my former coworkers gave me as a good bye present when I moved down here. A sale and a gift certificate--what could be better? I used a little bit of the certificate right after they gave it to me, to buy one of the Walker stitch pattern treasuries, and I'd been thinking about using the rest for some chunky alpaca, either Misti Alpaca Chunky Baby Alpaca or Plymouth baby Alpaca Grande, to make a turtleneck vest from an old Rebecca magazine.

I've made the vest twice before, once because I liked it one someone's blog, and then because it turned out to be really useful. When I made the first vest, I didn't expect to wear it--I'm way too lazy to wear what is clearly a decorative garment (if you actually need to keep your torso warm, what about your arms?). But it was quick, and I had the yarn, so why not? It turns out it's just the right amount of warm, especially since it covers my neck. So I made a second one.

Sadly, vest #1 is getting kind of pilly now (and it seems to attract fuzz from other clothes, so its pills don't even match). I'd been thinking about making a new brown vest, perhaps in alpaca, since it's so pet-able, but too warm for an entire sweater. However, after much waffling, I decided to skip the alpaca in favor of some chocolate-y brown Rowan Big Wool.

Chunky chocolate-y brown knitting seems to be a theme lately, since I've been working on a design for Schaefer Yarns using Esperanza in one of the new colors, Julia Child. I'm not sure what their plans for the design are, so I don't want to show what it really looks like. But look at the fabric behind the Big Wool--yum! They sent five skeins, but I suspect my sample will take less than three, because they're gigantic. To keep the chocolate knitting under control, I'll finish this sweater before I work on the vest.

My second Webs purchase was 10 skeins of Debbie Bliss Cotton Cashmere. There was some waffling about this yarn too, because the color looks like a dusty lavender outside, but then entirely gray inside. Which wouldn't be a problem, except that I made a silvery gray picovoli a while back, and I was thinking about something similar. But the less dusty lavender was too lavender, and none of the other colors spoke to me, so I stuck with the dusty lavender (which looks entirely dusty and not at all lavender in this picture, I see), and I'll make something with short or 3/4 length sleeves.

In other knitting news, I finished the socks I was designing for Schaefer Yarn, and am still slogging away on my lacy Argosy... it's a great design, but for some reason we're just not clicking (it's not you, it's me), so I have to pay an awful lot of attention for such a repetative stitch pattern. As a result, it's going slowly (and photographs badly). I thought for a second that I was somehow half done, but then I remembered that it's just the long side is half the length I want--the short side is still short (the pattern is worked on the diagonal). It'll be great, but in the meantime...

Next time, day 2 of the weekend, in which I bike a long way, and am hit by falling somethings.