Sunday, January 07, 2007

Yarny gifts

(Before I say anything else, note that I just converted this blog to the new GoogleBlogger format. Let me know via valerie [at] valeriepolichar [dot] com if you run into trouble with commenting, etc.)

I gave my friend S. her fingerless gloves for her birthday, and she seemed pleased. Amusingly, she gave me a yarn gift! So we said we had conservation of yarn. This is from a woman at her local farmer's market, who has a sheep dairy:

It might want to be some mittens, I'm thinking...

Friday afternoon I came home to a surprise: the fabulous April had sent me some goodies!

When she found out I was doing Dulaan knitting a couple of months ago, she had promised to send me some bulky yarn she'd bought but didn't like knitting with. I didn't expect to ALSO get yummy cookies (Hob Nobs for Rob, tee hee), a great vest pattern to use with the yarn, and two, count 'em, two pair of Addi Turbos (you knitters know how generous a gift that is!). As you can see in the picture above, I started on a vest right away.

I finished the vest this morning. I ran out of yarn, because my gauge is a bit off I think, and so I ended up single-crocheting the armholes instead of ribbing them. The little pile of fluff is the leftover yarn — just the snippings off my end trims. All the longer bits had to be used to finish the underarms. I felt so economical! And some young girl will be happy to have a pretty warm vest.

I don't like knitting with bulky yarn myself; the first few rows hurt your hands, and then it just doesn't have the interest for me that finer yarns do. But there is no denying that it's ideal for charity knitting; it makes very thick, warm garments for people in cold places. I had committed to do five Dulaan knits by July 2007, and I only finished one so far, so April has really helped me on my way.

I pondered what to do about the second vest, since I knew I was low on yarn. Then I remembered that I had a Weird Ball in my odd balls box. Weirder than the rest. I ordered it from Webs a while back, confusedly thinking I was ordering an entire bag of yarn. I actually only got one ball. And it didn't look anything like I expected. It was — weird. It was on sale, so I couldn't return it.

But the color coordinated well enough with the pink/grey yarn that I thought it would make a cute fuzzy trim that might please a child while keeping her cozy. Here we go, Muppet Vest!

5 comments:

Elinoire said...

Ah ha! Now I understand why bloglines told me you had something like 47 new posts. That seemed like a lot, even for you.

You are right -- that is indeed a Weird Ball. It looks *great* with the pink, though. If you don't tell anyone, everyone will assume you got them at the same time with the intent to use them both in one project.

Anonymous said...

Great vest! I've just started my Dulaan knitting; I also committed to 5 by July 1st. I'm making a felted hat right now, but that vest is so cool, I'm thinking a vest may be next.

karenalienated said...

Just READING YOUR BLOG is making me tired. But soon, every baby in Southern California will be warm!

April said...

The vest looks terrific! As does the grey yarn with the pink. Enjoy your cookies. =)

Anonymous said...

i love the pink and gray combo, very cute!!

ps - did not have any trouble reading your blog from google reader or firefox.