Black Dog

First off, for those of you who knew about my mom’s recent health issues and week-plus hospital stay, thank you for the kind words, thoughts, prayers, and overall support since her birthday (which is the 4th of July), when she went into the hospital. She’s back home and resting comfortably, and a phone conversation with her yesterday evening reinforces the idea that she’s doing WAY better and on the mend. PS–don’t ignore your own body’s warning signs! ’nuff said

It’s TRUE! The Baby Surprise Jacket *CAN* be knitted in a day! I cast on for this (version) sweater on Saturday afternoon and finished it early in the day on Sunday.

I couldn’t be more happy with the finished results.

and it’s blocking and should be nearly dry by now, awaiting button selection. I really enjoyed the knit this time around, and the asterik above will now be explained.

The astute reader (with a memory…..going back a month ago) will recognize this as a rerun-sort of project. I did cast on for the BSJ in the car on the way down to TNNA last month. It was completed in a similar time frame last time, but there was something wrong……when I bound off, the front was about an inch longer than the back across the top, making for some wacky shaping/styling when you folded it up into position. I had most of a skein of yarn left, so I figured I would re-knit it from the beginning and when I needed the second skein, I’d rip out the first attempt.

As soon as I completed the first set of directions and had the sleeves on the needles and was headed down the body, I realized that my first attempt was wrong from the get-go. I had skipped out on a few ridges in the first set of instructions, so the back was shorter by several rows, causing the entire remainder of the project to be off. I’m glad I kept the first attempt, as I was able to diagnose the problem when comparing the two pieces of knitting and embrace the error of my ways. It’s not an overly-difficult pattern to knit, but you do have to do what it says or your results will not be…..right. Now it’s on to making a child’s version–most likely with stripes and most likely in Cascade Superwash 220. But not just yet.

There is a siren calling my name

and her name is Cascade Pure Alpaca. I mean, just LOOK at the amazing depth of color in these skeins

I’ve been threatening to cast on with this stuff for nearly a week now, but I haven’t taken the plunge. Today being a day off (of sorts–there’s still tons to be done with the shop now that the distractions are lessened with respect to my Mom’s health.

The yarn is delicious–it’s 100% baby alpaca, worsted weight, and comes in 100g/220yd skeins that retail for $16. There’s over 40 shades that are dyed, and a sister yarn (Eco Alpaca–undyed, so it’s “critter colors”) has another 12-ish shades (some are marled….each ply a different shade…YUM). To touch this yarn is to fall in love instantly—it’s sooooooooooft, it comes in great shades, it’s a dream to work with, and the resulting fabric is quite nice. The price point is great, too, especially for a yarn of this caliber/quality (that’s why we’ll carry it at the shop for the upcoming fall/winter season–we’ve hd a couple shades on the shelves lately, but it got snapped up by smart shoppers!). I look forward to knitting with it ASAP, so I’ll cast on later today, for sure.

There’s more projects to share–I’ve finished a couple things (including the one brought out of cryo-storage mentioned in my last post, as well as a couple socks). And as always, I’ve started several (a PAIR of socks for my Dad with a new shade of Trekking Maxima we just got in) and I’ve swatched for even more. But as of right now, there’s no pictures to share, and what’s a knitting blog without pictures, right? OK–I’ll go take some. Be well, and I’ll be back soon.

A temptation for you as a parting shot….literally

Helen’s been dyeing sock-weight yarn again, and these three are what survived the drying stage (the rest were purchased WET, fresh from the dye table). They’re 437 yards/100g skeins of 75% superwash merino and 20% nylon and $24 each. Call the shop (866-939-BEAR) if you’re in need of them.

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