I will be out of town for a few days — going to Florida with some of my peeps. I will just be hanging out around a pool and maybe going on an airboat through the Everglades looking for gators!!!
I doubt I will be doing much knitting. My hands and wrists have flared up a little bit and this may be the perfect excuse for a mini-break. On the other hand, I can’t imagine not knitting on the plane OR when lounging poolside!
I do have a smallish project in mind. One of my [cough::many::cough] purchases when Sally was here was the yarn for the Aranami Shawl by Olga Buraya-Kefelian. If you buy just a little more, you can make two. So that is what we did. Olga shows hers knit in Brooklyn Tweed’s LOFT and The Yarnery in St. Paul is a new distributor of his yarns. While in DC, this is the project I worked on and then finished shortly after getting home:
It’s cute, right? But the yarn is a pain. It is so fragile that it breaks doing the most mundane tasks: rolling it in a ball, pulling the yarn from said ball, picking up sts (which you do constantly in this project), sewing in ends (which you do constantly in this project)…well, you get the idea. It did not happen every time, but I would not use this yarn again. Which brings me to the next item.
On Mother’s Day, DD the eldest (my very knitworthy little pumpkin) saw the shawl and loved it and its Japanese vibe. BUT, she did not like the look or feel of the yarn. I went back the The Yarnery and bought Cascade 220 Fingering yarn in a similar array of colors. The price differential is astounding: $5 vs $14.50!! You need 5 colors and even though you only use small amounts of the first few tiers, you still have to buy a skein!! $25 compared to $72.50. The colors aren’t identical but I am fine with that 🙂 .
I have started it, but as I said, I am feeling discomfort when I knit (or do just about anything, to be honest!). I leave tomorrow morning before dawn and will not know until then if the project comes with me or stays home… 🙁
PS – Deb asked which Cascade 220 Fingering yarns I am using:
8401 – natural
8010 – silver
8400 – charcoal
4002 – jet
8555 – black
The lightest color is whiter and the darkest is blacker than the version in LOFT.
PS2: Just adding this about LOFT — the above commentary is MY OPINION, and it is just an opinion. Many knitters absolutely love LOFT and think it is amazing. They put up with the fragility because of the colors, etc. The Black Coal was the worst culprit for me so maybe I got a bad skein (?). Anyway, even though I judged it harshly, you may want to see for yourself!!
