So I've decided on the capelet, although if I've time I might knit the shrug too.
My mad dash for pretty and budget friendly cardigans turned into a mad dash for pretty and budget friendly yarn on Saturday after work. Fenwicks was disappointingly scarce of any nice aran (although I did pick up several balls of chocolatey brown and icey blue wool in the sale remnants that I'm imagining raglan potential for. It'll probably take a while for me to actually translate that into any sort of reality though), so I scarpered over to Bainbridges where all the pretty yarn lives, and eventually decided on some deliciously soft Debbie Bliss alpaca silk.
I've used it once before, and it's easily one of my favourite yarns for the simple fact that it's so pretty, soft and sheeny that I could sit and stroke it all day long. So I snapped up every ball of the stuff in the pretty blue green colour that they had in stock. Which made for a total of 4 little balls. How disappointing! I'm a paranoid knitter, ever fearful of not having enough yarn, so I usually buy much more than I ever need. Plus, I was planning on making the sleeves of the capelet a bit longer, so had dreams of buying enough alpaca silk to bathe in. 4 balls was very disappointing. So when I found out there was no more in stock, I bought up a couple of extra balls of brown alpaca silk, for some emergency colourwork edging, and some RYC cashsoft aran so I could knit the whole thing all over again in a different yarn if it didn't work out!
Popped into Hobbycraft on the way home to see if they had any alpaca silk roaming about, and that was a bit of a dud, although I did pick up some nice handmade buttons that I'll turn into a brooch to fasten the capelet when it's done.
Swatched for gauge on the Saturday night, and cast on on Sunday. The yarn sheds a bit, but it's knitting up really quick, although I did have to frog back quite a few rows last night as I'd somehow managed to move my raglan increases one stitch across in one area. How annoying. I'm about ready to divide the armholes now though, so will hopefully get it finished tonight after a day of (not so) hard work revising.
I'm feeling a bit apprehensive about the capelet now though, because I rang up a local yarn store this morning, in a last ditch attempt to find some extra alpaca silk, and although they didn't have any the lady on the phone was nice, when she found out I was making a garment she pretty much slated the yarn saying that she really wouldn't recommend using it, as the weight would cause it to drop and that it pills terribly. Sigh. I can deal with the droppage if it happens, as I'd like the shrug to fit loosely anyway, but I really hope it doesn't pill as much as she said it does! Fingers crossed...
My EZ baby sweater for Gemma's bump is currently stalled until after my exam on Friday, where I have a whole week planned of knitting and spinning. It's coming along quite slowly, but is very cute, and the yarn is the softness man-made fiber I've ever come across, it's gorgeous!
