So what's up next? Well, in my continuing efforts to be a poster-child for Filatura di Crossa novelty yarn, I swatched up some St. Tropez that I purchased from Elann when it showed up not to long ago at a price I was unable to say no to (I'm slowly but surely edging my way towards that $500 mark). The color you see above is color #104 - primarily a rich blue spectrum red with flecks of pink, brown, black, gold and mauve. This yarn is 40% cotton, 40% viscose, 10% acrylic and 10% polyamide.

I think you can describe this yarn as a boucle style yarn with a few short cotton eyelashes thrown in for good measure. What appeals to me most is its texture.

The swatch was done in stockinette 16 stitches wide, 22 rows to 4" x 4". I did this swatch twice -- after the garter stitch edging I initially used on it flattened it down and made it difficult to get a good gauge measurement. It's still not easy to see the stitches, which I predict will either be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how easy it is for me to drop them -- I usually love yarns whose textures hide flaws since I don't enjoy ripping very much.

I knit up the swatch on my US 8 (5.0) AdditTurbos -- I thought it would catch too much on my bamboos or my Denise needles. As always, my Addis came through for me. The project I am going to do with this yarn only takes three skeins (supposedly) and I'm curious to see how well I'll like it after I'm done. The yarn flows through my hand well enough, but likes to get caught on itself, making tensioning a little more effort. Also, it's really easy to knit into the stich below, or pick up something that shouldn't be picked up. But sometimes you have to make sacrifices for fun texture.

So what is it I am going to make? Well, here comes pattern number 4 from the Filatura di Crossa Spring/Summer 2003 book (BTW... their new fall patterns are out... click here to go to their website and check them out. I think I am going to need to pick up the Stacy Charles Fall 2003 book sometime soon.)

I'm going to cast on for this top tonight. The only thing I will be doing differently is that I will be leaving out the stripes in the yoke area. Call me cheap, but I just wasn't willing to go out and spend another $8 on a skein of yarn for a few thin stripes. Mine will be solid St. Tropez. I'm hoping that it will knit up in the "wicked fast" category so that I can enjoy it soon and have a chance to work on a couple more summer tops.

As an aside... I wore my Tai top to work today... this is definitely going to be a favorite for me. It held its shape well and feels really nice against my skin. It breathes pretty well, too. Probably the only problem I had was that it does snag when it comes in contact with things that can hook it -- like my rings -- so I need to pay attention to what I am doing when I wear it.