ebay yarn saves the day but I ruined it anyway

I finished my Cherish shrug over the weekend using the Tahki Baby yarn I found on eBay. I have to say, this was the most rewarding eBay experience I have ever had. Without going into too much detail, I find eBay purchases aggravating for a number of reasons and I pretty much stopped using it. When it comes to yarn, overly competitive bidding makes me want to go elsewhere. Nickle and dime-ing stuff seems petty. And that scratches the surface of my past issues with eBay.

Anyway, the gal (or guy, I have no idea) who sold me the long-since-discontinued yarn is clearly an angel. First, they miraculously had what I needed. Second, they shipped it the day I bought it and I got a ship confirmation via email. Third, it was exactly what I thought it would be - no seconds or partials. And it was a perfect color match! Last, I got the shipment in 2 days. Way to go USPS.

But here's the punch line. I accidentally felted it. I put the shrug in the washer on gentle with the intention of removing it after 2 minutes and hand rinsing it. But I forgot about it. Even on the handwash cycle, parts of it felted. It looked great and fit great before this. Poop.

I knit this on 15's rather than 17's and I am pretty sure I got gauge (until the felting). The needles were Lantern Moon and are simply the best needles I have ever used.

I would make this again because it was fast and cute. The sewing up part was slow but not too tricky. I would make the arm circumference a little larger too. But that's because of my arms not a problem with the pattern. My picots look a little large too but I could probably fix that the next go round. Actually, looking at this further, I think I screwed up the sleeves too. I may have too many of the rows of garter stitch and picots. It is still cute. The color in the picture below is bad because my living room is poorly lit. But the picture above shows the truly awesome pink-ness of great yarn.

inch -tall icing

This is my own version of my cousin's version of peanut butter cake. I foolishly believed that one can never have too much icing so I made enough chocolate peanut butter butter cream frosting for 2 cakes and tried to pile it on to one. Turning chocolate peanut butter ganache into butter cream was my idea sort of. And, yes, you can definitely ruin a cake with too much icing. oh well.

knitting nightmare

It finally happened. Despite meticulously calculating the required yardage for my Cherish shrug and happily determining I should have enough, I ran out of Tahki Baby. Which, of course, has been discontinued in color 48. My stash was several years old so I doubt I will be able to locate more. How much more you ask. Enough for the last 10 very short rows of the second sleeve. If you listen carefully you can hear the sound of my heart breaking over the internet.

Update: found some on ebay. What are the chances that the color remotely matches?

love the fuzz

This color is awesome but I fear the resulting sweater will be rather annoying and itchy. Not because it's not a soft yarn. It just seems like to fuzz level is a bit high.



Anyway, I got gauge with the recommended needles. (Highly suspect, if you ask me.) I started this on the airplane to the Kentucky Derby and it got a lot of attention. I think my fellow passengers were admiring my deft analysis of the racing form while casting on 102 stitches. One guy asked me if I brought my knitting to the track. Of course not - I am too busy making bets and drinking.

I really have been knitting

I just haven't had much time to discuss. So here is a little gem I just finished for a South Park themed swap on Ravelry. The pillow is my own "design", if you will. Basically, I have never done color work before and it shows. The yarn is that acrylic Vana White stuff from Lion Brand and I am not loving it. I blocked the hell out of this and it still looks wavey. Could be I was having tension problems that went undetected....

I followed the instructions I found here for making a diagram. After swatching I figured I needed about seven rows and 5 stitch wide seed stitch border for a 11 inch-ish pillow. It came out over sized which is great since I could only find a 14 inch pillow. I blocked it to just under 14 inches square so it could stretch a bit over the pillow.

I made the back in contracting orange (to symbolize Kyle's opposition to Cartman's lack of morality - hee) and crocheted the seam together. Of course I really don't know how to crochet and I think the chain edge come out on the wrong side but it looks ok. OK?

Next time I do color work I will go a little slower and ask for help from some one who knows what they are doing. Also smaller needles and more stitches for better graphic definition. I used 8US which is one size down from the Vana's Choice recommended 9's.