OK, I'm Calmer Now

The first yarn to arrive from my one-day yarn-buying windows was the Knitpicks order. For her retirement gift, my mother picked a shawl in white/cream/natural, and wouldn't you believe it--in that big pile of lace yarn, I didn't have any appropriate yarn. So.....
I ordered 3 hanks of Bare laceweight, which is probably about an entire hank more than I need, but I'm so frustrated over running out of yarn and/or fabric that I was being cautious. Then, before I could make it safely off their website, I was blindsided byThis is my favorite colorway, and it's being discontinued. Count 'em. 10 skeins--4,400 yards added to the stash. Oops. Thank heavens it wasn't a two-day window--I'd have been in serious trouble.

A friend is giving us her condo in McCall for a week, and she won't let us pay her anything for it, so I thought a scarf would be nice. I dug through my laceweight--which is really fun to do if you want to know the truth, and came up with Elann's baby lace merino, size 4 needles, and found thisin Barbara Walker's first pattern treasury. I have loved this stitch pattern ever since I first saw it used, but after two hours, I had to admit that my particular combination wasn't working:Since the pattern relies on stitch definition, my needles were way too big for the yarn I chose--not to mention that it was going to be about 13 inches wide with two stitch repeats, so I frogged it and switched to this instead:

It's Knitpicks' Alpaca Cloud--a much heavier laceweight (if there is such a thing) which made the size 4 needles usable. We're using the condo in March so speed takes precidence over pattern.

Now that I have declared that my 2009 New Year's Resolution is to use up 150 balls of yarn, bulky weights and worsted weights would be my friend, wouldn't they? Yup, I keep telling myself that....
I wanted to play with another option for variegated lace yarn. WHAT AM I THINKING?????

I'm going to have to include a yardage goal now OR come to my senses and stay away from the lace yarn, but as we all know how likely that is, I hereby resolve to knit 25,000 yards this year.

Hey, a hobby that involves sharp pointed sticks is NOT for the faint of heart!

Comments

Jillsknit said…
LOVE! the Barbara Walker pattern. I've never noticed it before. You are causing me big problems in the - get a few projects done before starting a bunch more theory of life.

Going for yardage over skeins is a very wise decision. I've always thought yardage is more accurate. After all - you don't count number of sewn items you count fabric yardage.
January 17, 2009 at 3:47 PM
Daniele said…
25,000 yards for you is totally doable!

Love that lace pattern and the pinky alpaca. Can't wait to see it progress.. :)
January 21, 2009 at 10:52 AM
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