Friday, December 01, 2006

I lucked up

I decided to try to knit myself a pair of Fetching, so I went to my LYS on my way home. I was looking at the Cascade 220 superwash and had chosen one to try. I happened to see some Balene circular needles in a basket and was looking at them when a saleslady told me everything in the baskets was 40% off. One basket had some different yarns in it and I got three balls-2 Cascade Superwash 220 and some Classic Elite Inca Alpaca. There's only 109 yards in the Alpaca so I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet, if anyone has any ideas let me know.

The Cascade is in two colors-one is an off white and the other is a brownish green-sort of olive/brown.

I also got a couple of sets of the Balenes in size 5 so I could try the Fetching on two circs.

I know the Cascade is a lighter weight than the yarn used but I don't want them bulky. Besides, they look like they fit pretty loosely on the lady's hands and I like my gloves snug. Even with the size 5 needles they still look like they'll fit me. I'm using the brown and even though I'm only at the first cable twist I'm already liking them.

However, I'm not impressed with these needles but I'll make them work. They're some sort of plastic and although they have a better join than my aluminum circs the tips are a little too flexible. The cable on the sixteen inch needles came loose but I fixed that with a drop of super glue. Good thing they were on discount, I don't think I'll buy any more of them-unless it's in larger sizes, the smaller sizes have a much too small tip. I might end up going back and getting a set of DPNs.

Anyway, for almost $40 worth of stuff, I only spent around $25 so I'm fairly happy-with the yarn anyway.

Trying something

http://www.crochetkim.com/patterns/bookmark.html

I made the angel part with some Lion Wool and an H hook. I stopped at the point where it said to stop for a pin. Now I'm running it through the wash to see how it felts. It'll be my first felted object, though a pretty small one. It only takes a couple of minutes to make-5 at most, I'd say.

I wanted to try it and see how small it'll get, I want to make a felted pin. If it works I might make some more for some of the ladies at church to wear when we do our Christmas Cantata in a couple of weeks. I know I could make them from thread in about the same amount of time and if it doesn't turn out like I hoped I might still do that but a felted one would be more-wintry-I guess you could say, since we wear a lot of wool in winter.


I'll keep you all posted, it's in the wash right now.