11/30/2002

Yesterday was a total "yarn gift to myself" day. I nipped into the yarn store to pick up some fuzzy stuff for the cuffs and sleeves of Zoe's tutti-frutti sweater. Bought some fluffy stuff, but not the colorful Fizz, though I did exchange the leftover green. Some pink Aura and some melon colored something. So much for this being a cheap project -- At least the rest of it only cost $2.99! I was making tremendous progress with this project, but now that I've divided the body and the arms and slipped the stitches onto some scrap yarn the shape seems funny. Mostly, the neckhole is too small for the width of the sweater. I checked early to make sure it would go over Zoe's head, and it does, but it just looks funny. This is raglan top-down, so there's all kinds of shaping around the neck, and I don't think I could just pick it out. I suppose there's no harm in trying that before I just rip out the whole thing. The hole can't become any smaller, and I can always improve things by knitting on a collar. It's really too bad because it was coming along so nicely and was nearly half done, but I really don't want it to look funny. There's no point in that! Any thoughts?

If you're my relative, don't read this. You'll spoil your gift!

Okay, they've been warned! As if one yarn treat were not enough, my package from Knitpicks.com arrived yesterday. Some Magic and some Cozy, both from Tahki/Stacy Charles. The Magic is in a colorway called "Chess" -- perfect for a scarf for my chess playing brother-in-law! Almost went with the Artful Yarns' Jazz in Theolonius, but didn't (they even make one called Ella, but I haven't succumbed yet). I'm planning to knit the Chess in a pattern of knitted and purled squares -- naturally.

And the Cozy. The Cozy! I guess that's one of those things about mailorder. You don't get to fondle the yarns. The flipside of that is that it can be such a pleasant surprise. The Cozy is SO aptly named. Very soft, lots of subtle (and not so subtle, but not riotous)color knitted up. This too will make a nice scarf. I've started in 1x1 rib on #13 needles and it looks great, but my wrist hates the extra motion of ribbing. Might try something else.

The tutti-frutti has to marinate for a while so I can think about how to approach the neck with a cool head. In the mean time, scarves! It's weird, but I don't think I've ever knit a scarf before last week. Seems bizarre, but I just never did the scarf stage. Anyway, they are totally fun and quick and require so little commitment... I'm enjoying them. Everyone's getting scarves for the holidays!

Not quite true. Leo opened his felted Noro slippers last night. I couldn't wait longer than the first night of Hannukah. Now that they've been presented I will photograph them. They are warm, they are thick, they are not too slippery. I think I may be at the end of my felting thing for the moment though. Also ended up making a felted bowl. That's what I am calling it. Thought it might be a little purse, but by using the Lamb's pride at the bottom and the Noro on the sides and not really thinking hard enough about how huge the difference is between the shrinking of height vs. width, it's a little bowl. Sort of a "useful pot to put things in". If I could come up with the right thing to put in it, it would be a charming little tschotchke. Food's out. Not really washable enough --and fuzzy. Too big for paperclips. Not big enough for any but the smallest of yarn skeins -- but then, small skeins of fancy yarn... hmm.

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