What's Next

While I was busy being a little frustrated with the pink spongy sweater's neckline, I decided to soothe my frustrated finshing nerves with the promise of an exciting new beginning: a swatch for my next project. This was really actually a tough call. I have yarn for two projects that I am very excited about. The decision I made had more to do with my late night state of mind than anything else. For the lovely Phildar Chanel-inspired jacket, the only pattern I've got is in French. For Liberty, I've got a somewhat complicated Rowan pattern in English. I'd been trying to puzzle out what I needed to do for the Phildar swatch, but without a close-up picture, it was just too much of a challege for me. So while I'm waiting for a bona fide copy of the Phildar magazine containing the jacket (along with it's potentially useful English translation), Liberty gets the nod.

The Liberty Swatch

This looks complicated, but it really isn't. It will mean a lot of weaving in of ends (and gnashing of teeth, no doubt), but otherwise it's pretty easy and quick to knit. (I never thought I would call knitting with DK weight yarn a quick knit, but compared to the Eponge, it's like lightening).

I really love these colors together. And I have no idea why. Normally, I avoid all these colors. However, somehow, when they are all combined together, the grey looks like pale blue to me, and the orange has more pink tones. It, of course, remains to be seen how it will look when I am wearing it, but I am helpful. I've been so jealous of my friends who can wear acid green and orange, I'm hoping that the way for me to carry them off is to combine them with a third color.

Another bonus? The Cashcotton DK and Cashsoft DK are nothing short of seductive to knit with. I mean hold the phone and just send my paycheck to the UK, this stuff is just incredible. I almost can't put it down. With just a partial swatch in my hands, I was already deciding what sweater out of ClassicCafe would be next. If I could only take two yarns with me to a desert island, it would probably be these. Especially if my desert island wasn't a tropical one.

The Blog of the Day
Today I wandered around the world to Melbourne, Australia to visit Lisa's Blog. I have to admit to a secret love for the Australian continent -- or at least what little I've seen of it (Sydney, Cairns, Port Douglas, the surrounding rain forest and the Great Barrier Reef), so I was pretty psyched to get mail from folks in the land down under. Lisa is, indeed, a Sock Monster as her blog name implies. Scroll down the page to see an impressive collection (my favorite are the little socks that match the Zebra jumper), especially compared against my paltry sock knitting output these days.