yarnkandy

Lizzy

I'm knitting Lizzy from the Naturally Noro book in Noro Silver Thaw in colorway #9 for my Mom.  She spotted a sample at one of the yarn shops in Nashville when I was visiting over Christmas.  Lucky for me the store did not have the number of skeins I needed to make her the sweater - they had one, I needed 4.  I found it online at littleknits.com for half price - yippee!  I ordered 5 skeins because we wanted to lengthen the sleeves (which are written as 3/4 length).  I have finished one front and am almost thru with the second.  I've tried really hard to match the stripes - as much as you can with Noro.  When I told her that the stripes would not match, front to back, because it's a cardigan and the stripes would be narrower on the back than the front - I think she kind of freaked.  She did not remember that it had any stripes.  Wonderful.  I emailed her a few finished pics of sweaters I found thru Ravelry (flickr pics).  She didn't really like the one in her yarn.  Too dark, too purple, too much brown.  Wonderful.  At least I initially bought this book a few years ago, because I liked this sweater.  Just hadn't knit it yet.  Obviously changed my mind for some reason.

Mods - I knit an inch of seed stitch hem because I didn't want the stockinette rolling hem.  I've made slight waist shaping - at 5 inches I added a waist decrease, then another after 6 rows.  I knit 12 rows then  added an increase and another after 8 rows. 

It's really hard to photograph this color.  It's much more subtle in person.

Bird in Hand mitten

Just one

Left mitten has been frogged back to the wrist - too big.

Tangled Yoke drama

I can't seem to count - arghhh!  I keep missing my increases and have ripped s-e-v-e-r-a-l times.  Finally, I am now past the increases.  Oh yeah, I also left my magazine in Hub's truck on Sunday.  Can we say - um, no pattern?  Thank God Interweave now has patterns online.  Downloaded that sucking Sunday night.  No muss, no fuss.  Sure, it cost me $5.50, I already had the pattern (just not in my hot little hands), but no waiting for Hubs to drop it in the mail (and if that would have happened at all - being as he's super busy) and the postage would probably been about the same cost as the download.  That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.  Here's a progress pic from this weekend -

Yummy Malabrigo and Yarn Store Rant

First the yummy Malabrigo.  I made this hat over the weekend - started Friday 12/28 and finished Saturday 12/29. 

 

Now the rant - I visited Haus of Yarn while visiting my Mom over Christmas.  I typically visit this store every time I'm at my Mom's (and make fairly hefty purchases).  I purchased a sweater's worth of Malabrigo on Thursday and saw the shop model of this hat.  The tag on the hat stated that the pattern was free with the purchase of the yarn.  My mind was elsewhere when I was checking out (with my 6 skeins of Malabrigo) and I didn't ask for the pattern.  We ended up on the same end of town the next day and because I kept thinking about the cute Malabrigo hat, we stopped in.  I picked up 4 skeins of Malabrigo - one for the hat and a matching skein for fingerless mittens and 2 skeins for a scarf my Mom wanted to make.  When I asked for the pattern on Friday - the owner informed me that the tag was a mistake and it had been changed at least a week and a half ago.  Right.  As we were discussing this, one of the workers changed the tag.  I'm not an idiot - I know what I saw.  Though even if the tag still stated that the pattern was free, she was not going to give it to me.  I should have walked - and returned the 7 skeins of yarn I bought on the previous day, but I'm a pushover and I paid for the pattern.  What really pissed me off when I got home - it's a store pattern.  I have heard and and now experienced first hand that the owner is less than friendly.