I think I’ve mentioned before that I usually don’t have more yarn than the project I’m working on, one project out, and single oddballs leftover from previous projects. My stash has started to grow, though, so I’m making myself knit through it before I buy any more yarn. First up, Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud in Iris Heather. This yarn was part of my Chanukah gift from Kelly last year. Yes, my husband buys me yarn and knitting paraphernalia for gifts. He knew I’d been wanting the Harmony sock needle set, so he ordered it for me. He also knows I like alpaca, so he tossed this on to get free shipping. 6 skeins, so I have more than enough for a single shawl. I spent a lot of time looking for the perfect pattern for it, and finally chose the Raku Suri Stole. It’s June now, and the yarn and pattern have been sitting in my hall closet for at least 5 months now, which is not at all like me. I finally pulled it out last night and wound the 4 skeins this shawl should take (swift and ball winder being a birthday present from aforementioned wonderful husband), but didn’t actually start knitting until this morning. I’m feeling a little frustrated. The pattern consists of 3 squares with a large flower in the middle and several joining panels. You knit the squares, and then pick up their edges to add in the panels joining the squares together. What I didn’t realize until I started knitting, was that you make the squares by casting on 8 stitches, joining to work in the round, and then knit the squares from the inside out. It’s extremely difficult to hold 5 double pointed needles with 2 stitches a piece on them without ending up with a tangled mess. Also consider that this is lace weight yarn, which is pretty thin. I must have started over again about half a dozen times, because I couldn’t see what I was doing. Once I finally got about 4 or 5 rows in, it was easier to see what order the needles should be in, but I kept dropping a needle out of the knitting and scrambling to get it through the loops again before a stitch got dropped. I’ve just completed row 12, and it’s much easier to hold. I’m just not sure yet if it looks the way it should. Maybe if I can’t tell, no one else can? If it is right, the finished product will be beautiful though, and I’ll only have to go through that twice more. Even if casting on and beginning this project aren’t much fun, the pattern is one of the prettiest shawls I think I’ve seen. I’m working up to the Forest Path Stole. It was originally published in Interweave Knits not long after I started knitting. I bought the issue just for the stole, but didn’t have the courage to try something that complicated yet. Once I was ready, I spent, oh, about 3 years looking for the right yarn. I finally bought some Knitpicks Shimmer in spice for it. It’s not exactly what I had in mind, but it’s time it got knitted already, and I was really taken by the colorway when they added it to the catalog.
Today is the big baby move day too. Someone from Kelly’s office stopped by to help us load my grandparents’ cabinet on the company van, and Kelly’s already driven it up to my parents’ house and unloaded it. I’ll miss it. It’s really beautiful, but there’s nowhere to put it right now. If we ever sell our house and move, maybe there will be a place for it. (Like we’ll ever sell our house! Four showings and no offers since November is not promising. A big thanks to W for the crappy housing market.) When he comes back we’ve got a friend coming to load the sofa on the van (they wouldn’t both fit at once) and then it’ll either go to said friend’s house or Goodwill. He hasn’t decided yet if he can get it in his house. Lastly, we get to go furniture shopping. That part should be fun. It’d be more fun if it wasn’t so expensive. I feel pressure to get Norrie moved into her new room, though, so I can start getting ready for the new baby. She’s going to have so much space now! The nursery was the smallest room in the house, which for a new baby was plenty. This room is almost as big as the master bedroom, but she’ll have smaller furniture leaving her more floor space than us.
