The first one is Sylvia's fault because she displayed a lovely feather-and-fan scarf‡ that was too compelling not to try. She doesn't carry Trendsetter, but Knit Knack does, so off I went to procure a couple of balls of the stuff.
All the rest is Sylvia's fault because she sold it to me. At a 40% discount. Like I'm going to leave deeply discounted alpaca on the shelf. Or, apparently, deeply discounted anything.§
[SUMMARY: Pusher, enabler, purveyor and my new best friend.]
Let us explore fibre in its wild state.
Neither of these has alpaca. Tonalita is 52/48 wool/acrylic and Venus is 50/50.
Now, these... these have alpaca. And silk. And wool. And knit up at 2.75 stitches to the inch for instant alpaca gratification.%
While Brother and Father have expressed a desire to never EVER knit again, they both tentatively agreed to knit a scarf for my grandmother wherein we each knit a portion.$ I had to promise big yarn and simple stitchery. And reassure Father there would be no heels in a scarf.
So the red is for that. The purple is all mine.¶
[SUMMARY: That wasn't so bad, was it?]
Then there's the fibre tamed into the domestic service of Man. Or eBeth, as the case may be.
Her glittens# now come with a matching howl.††
If the hat looks a little small to you, it's because it's not normal human-size. eBeth has a tiny, little pinhead.@ I'm not being mean. She'd agree with me if she were here.
Here it is in hat form...
...and howl form...‡‡
...and full-on cowl form.
[SUMMARY: Now it's a hat, now it's a cowl. Magic!]
May I take a little detour here?§§
I had a lovely picture¶¶ from the book## this pattern††† came from. I uploaded it, cropped it, sized it, made it all sharp and clear for the innernets and *poof!* It's not here.
This happens with alarming frequency and I'm beginning to think it isn't me. I think Blogger eats random photos from every post‡‡‡ like some mythical creature feeding on virgins or chickens or something.
[SUMMARY: Denial? Me? Nah...]
Here's fibre of a kind you never see from me: fabric.
A hundred years ago, Ally found this stuff and I've been coveting it ever since. Even though I don't so much sew.
Oh, I have a sewing machine and I know how to use it. For the last two years, it's been languishing in the garage, collecting dust and spiders.
But Sylvia has made some lovely project bags and I'm very partial to project bags so I decided I didn't just WANT project bags out of these prints, I NEED project bags out of these prints.
I also think I need a serger.
I got a yard each in pink, green and blue.^
[SUMMARY: My fibre fetish knows no bounds.§§§]
And I even have a flotilla of photos left for tomorrow. Books! Tomorrow, we explore books!
Good talk.
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): In case you're wondering, sticking a toothpick in it doesn't give you any indication of doneness.
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): Amber made it. It was all rainbowy and cool. This is a different colourway, but I'm still anticipating a sort of red-rainbowy coolness.
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): You know the old joke, "I can't be out of money, I still have checks"? Well, my subconscious (shut up) philosophy is, "I still need yarn, there's still some on the shelf."
%FOOTNOTE (percented): Does that sound dirty to anyone else? Does anyone else want to come back as an alpaca so you can experience instant alpaca gratification?
$FOOTNOTE (moneyed): Yes, the Yarn Harlot did it. Yes, I'm copying. I am nothing if not derivative.
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): Purple 'paca gratification. Heh.
#FOOTNOTE (pounded): Her word -- gloves that turn into mittens.
††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): My word -- a hat that turns into a cowl.
@FOOTNOTE (atted): *snarf* I just noticed her hands appear to be bigger than her head. Remember the old second-grade bit where you'd tell someone if their hand was bigger than their face, they... had cancer, were smarter than everyone else, had a greater chance of working in the food industry... and when they put their hand up in front of their face to check you'd pop the back of their hand so they'd smack themselves in the nose? Good times, good times.
‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): I like the way the howl striped -- magic!
§§FOOTNOTE (Tropical Storm Marin): Just try and stop me.
¶¶FOOTNOTE (stalkin' cross the gallery): First, if you get the reference in the parentheses, I'll bake you brownies. But back to the actual footnote: Actually the picture mostly illustrated that I apparently read my knitting books in the bathtub, but you can't see it so I can tell you anything.
##FOOTNOTE (double pounder with cheese): Hats: a Knitter's Dozen, by Knitter's Magazine.
†††FOOTNOTE (triple threat): Pattern being a loose term. It's 10 inches of 2x2 rib with an eyelet round and a drawstring.
‡‡‡FOOTNOTE (Frankenblog!): Which is why I so often don't have photos when I say I will. Really. Shut up. Prove it.
^FOOTNOTE (careted): And a yard of each in pink for Sylvia. Because I love her. And I may have to bribe her to make project bags for me if my sewing machine or new serger thwarts me.
§§§FOOTNOTE (whoosh!): Except maybe pet fur yarn. That still creeps me out.
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