the fiber fetishist

When I got home from work Friday night, I finished the final 2 inches on the sleeve of Licorice Whip. I promptly tried it on, declared it done, and wove in the three ends[!]. Voilà! No FO post yet because I need to take pictures… maybe tomorrow. I am happy with it.

That left me with Friday night movietime and nothing to work on (I need to order a longer cable from Knit Picks for DH’s sweater — having 51″ of stitches on a 32″ circular needle is not fun). I had not quite decided what to knit next, but I felt so motivated to start another garment for me that I considered my options.

I had issues though (who, me, issues?! never!):

• Since Licorice Whip is purple, I didn’t want to knit something purple. This means not Demi and no working on my purple lace cardigan.
  
• I wanted to knit a cardigan, but I decided against Ariann (for now) despite my love of the ones I have seen in blogland and the fact that I have Cascade 220 in stash!
  
• I wanted to knit something cabled, but I am not sure I have the patience for Celtic Dreams right now.

This left me deciding that I wanted something interesting worked in the round — completely the opposite of my original choice, a cabled cardigan! My final list to choose from includes my stranded star moon sweater, Dale’s Gerbera, and Rowan’s Audrey.

I swatched my colorwork pattern (poorly) in the lovely Beaverslide yarn. It’s currently blocking. I don’t think there is enough contrast between the two lighter blues where I set them next to one another so I may need to adjust where I put the colors. I also am not happy about the lengthy floats I wrote in the pattern — I haven’t quite figured out how to neatly catch the long float yet. I also disregarded my pattern completely while swatching, and screwed it up (which you can see in the following image)!

star moon swatch — note the screwed up moon on the right — and reading materials for a project to be determined

This was a rather frustrating swatch. I think stranding with yarns thicker than sport weight is just insane, but this sweater will be almost like a Lopi style, so I know it’s possible to look decent (even though the yoke will be thick).

This morning, I swatched for Gerbera. It was a completely different experience.

mmm discontinued yarn

Knitting with Sisik is a serious tactile pleasure. Of course it’s discontinued now (but Little Knits does have more).

On US5 (knit picks options, of course), the 28 stitch center panel is about 4.75″ pre-wash/block. I’m getting almost 5 stitches per inch, and 6.5 rows per inch over stockinette stitch. Slightly different over the lace pattern. I should probably go down a needle size per pattern gauge, but I really like the drape of this fabric, so I think I might just stick with it.

I’ve washed the swatch and it seemed to tighten up a bit but we’ll wait and remeasure once it’s dry tomorrow.

None of this has really helped me make a decision for tonight, so I fear I may start something else…