Knot Again

Thwarted again by KnitPicks poor color selection

Knitpicks has come out with an amazing new pattern:

I. WANT. THIS. BAD!

The recommended yarn for this is Elegance (70% alpaca, 30% silk... YUM!)

I would like to make this in a nice, deep red.  Elegance's only red is a bright, slightly too orangey red.

Merino Style has the perfect red (Hollyberry), but it's just 100% wool, not nearly as nice as the Elegance.

Andean Treasure has Embers, but the description says it's heathered, so I don't know, and the gauge is slightly small.  I don't want the sweater to be see-through.

Andean Silk has Hollyberry and Cranberry, but the gauge is large.  I'm not sure if it would make a nice fabric at gauge.

I find this over and over again with KnitPicks.  Any time I want to make something, the yarn that would work for it doesn't come in a color I would like for that project.

I'd like to make a fall colored lacey scarf.  Shimmer would be a perfect yarn for it, but their fall colors (maple leaf and deep woods) are too drab.  They have the perfect color in Sock Landscape, though (New England).

I love the idea of their yarn Shadow, but not a single color they have inspires me.

I really want to make something with Shine, but I can't see any of the colors there matching up with any of the projects I have in mind.

*Sigh* They're really missing out.  I would order the pattern and all the yarn for this TODAY (despite the order I placed with elann yesterday) if they had a color I liked.

I wish I understood dyeing better.  I'm almost tempted to try overdyeing the yarn, but I'm not too sure how to get from what they have to where I want to be, and my forays into dyeing thus far have not yielded the results I had in mind w/o repeating the dyeing over and over again to take care of unevenness in the dye.  This pattern, in my mind, begs for a solid colored yarn.  And, I don't want to spend money on a bunch and then not be able to get it where I need it to be.

Check out this great pattern!

MJ of Yummy Yarn had generously put up the pattern for her pretty lace scarf.  She also has a nice new sock pattern up.  They're both linked in the sidebar.

knitty, knitty, knitty, knitty, knitty!

The new fall knitty is up, and fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it... I already have a list a mile or three long of projects I want to do) there's a lot more projects in this one that I like.

Samus is a cable-detail cardigan that reminds me a lot of Kepler.  I like the way the sleeves are attached on Samus better than those on Kepler, but Kepler has nice waist shaping, of which there is none on Samus.  I think both use the Saxon braid cable, but Kepler's is 4 stitches wider, and I think that looks better.  I think the cables pop better in the example pictures of Kepler than those for Samus... I'm guessing that's a result of the yarn used.  I think I may try to combine the elements I like from both patters and change a few things up completely (I'm not wild about either neckline).

Flora is a short little scarf that I think is fun and dressy.

The Falling Leaves socks are nice.  I like that it works okay with variegated yarn, and I have some Koigu in my stash that looks suspiciously like the bottom-most picture.

Edgar is a short-row (I think) shaped scarf.  I'm fascinated with these.  I already have this one and this one on my list.

And maybe best of all, Bubby !  He's really cute, and he might be small enough to be a quick knit.  I think he'd be great for sending down to comfort kids affected by the hurricane.

Speaking of which... I know of a place to send things, and I was told they need... everything.  Let me know if you're interested.

I'm still trying to decide if I would make Hipster.  I am not a fan of fanny packs, and I don't think this one really improves on anything in the looks department, but I'm trying to train puppies, and having a way to have treats readily available would be a good thing, and the design of this looks like it might do what I need.