Sorry No Photos!

Matt borrowed my camera over the weekend and of course I have no idea where it is. Which is a shame, as I do have quite a bit to update.

I worked on two main projects over the weekend. Matt's SOA pullover and a new Jamaican bag.

The SOA is looking great! the body has been worked to the armholes and I went ahead and put on the neck band (it's so much easier to do it before the whole sweater is done. Less cumbersome!) I did see an error on a cable last nigth, so I'll fix that today before I pick up the stitches for the first sleeve.

Let me say again that I love the Cotton Ease. The fabric I'm getting with the cables is wonderful and the Stone color is very Matt.

I also officially started my SOA as well, as I wanted to show the Spring Forward class what their assignment will look like. If you've never done top down with shoulder saddles knitting before, it can seem "weird". We're used to knitting from the bottom up and usually flat. That's how most sweaters are knit. However, once you do this technique, you start to look at all patterns "upside down". It just makes more sense (however, some cables don't work when knit top down).

Anyway, the Hot Pink for my SOA is quite awesome. If I had a camera, I could show it... but you can look at my swatch from the other day! I'm not very far with mine, with only one saddle done and the second cast on and just a few rows done.

Yes, I did start an other Jamaican drawstring bag. I bought some Boku at Olde Peddler Wools on Saturday (and some other yarn...*cough* I'll update the yarn stash enhancement later...). I had to cast it on, of course. It takes two skeins (the bag takes about 200 yds) and I'm almost done with the first skein. The Boku is lovely lovely to work with. It does remind me of Noro's Silk Garden, but the quality is much nicer (better, more evenly spun and less knots). It's doing just what I wanted with the spiral ribbing and the self striping yarn. This bag is addictive! I will have to use a ribbon for the closure, as I don't think the yarn will be smooth enough to pull the drawstring in.

Ya, so I have some new yarn...

Webs is having their anniversary sale, and that means it's time for my annual Cascade 220 stash enhancement (at $4.89/skein you should too). I kept it to two colors and they came on Saturday. I got Matt some of the Khaki Drab, just because I thought it was a great name for a yarn (may as well just call it "Matt"). I was surprised how incredibly lovely the yarn is. Yes, it's a khaki, but it's not the least bit drab. I'm already thinking of either making him Na Craga or Irish Moss (both from Alice Starmore's Aran Knitting book). I got myself a lovely blue heather.

The other yarn that arrived on Saturday was my order from Elann. I ordered two colors of their new cotton/linen marl yarn Adara. The yarn is lovely and I only crocheted a quick swatch (which I haven't washed yet). However, I can't believe that this would knit up as an aran weight yarn (18 sts to 4"). Seems much closer to a dk weight. I'll see how much it blooms when I wash it, but it's seems way too thin to be an aran weight yarn. One of the yarns was to be for a crochet lace pullover and the other for a Knitting Pure and Simple 3/4 sleeve pullover. I'll have to rethink those, since the gauge is so far off from what they have listed on the label (again, swatch not washed: so I might be wrong on this).

Last and not least was what I brought home from Olde Peddler Wools. As I mentioned, Darlene stocks the Kraemer yarns. I love their cotton/acrylic yarn. They make a baby/child yarn called Little Lehigh. One of the colors is my kind of pink. While they make a soft baby pink, this is the brighter, almost neon pink (called Peek A Boo). This will become a lacey summer cardigan (still debating between two patterns).

A Classic Elite Pattern (and it does look fab in that shade of pink, eh?)

or:

Green Mountain Spinnery's Lace Cardigan.

Hmm, decisions decisions!!!!

Either way, right now, it's all about working on some things that are sitting here (like Matt's SOA) and I've GOT to do a knitting nest clean up. All that new yarn needs to find a storage spot (yikes!) and I've got to just simply get things put away and better organized.

So that's the plan for today!
Keep On Knittin'!