Monday, April 09, 2007

A Very Mixed Bag

I'm going to apologize right off. Marco is not taking well to travel these days, even if a visit with Clare is at the end of it. As a result, I am seriously sleep deprived and make no warranty for the coherence of this entry. I'm not even going to pretend to try to stay on one subject. Much too difficult when my stream of consciousness is overflowing its banks.

So, first. Good heavens. Shameless trolling on the M-D KAL gets commenters. There's a lesson in that. Thank you.

Second. Unfortunately, today's post is about a different knitting book, so everyone visiting today will hightail it to somewhere else.

Third. The travel. We drove through the greyness to Urbana this weekend.

Clare has a test today and couldn't come up for Easter, so we went down. I haven't heard that much Latin in a mass since I was in grade school. The time with her was lovely. The general awfulness of the hotel was impressive (next time, I'll try the Ramada). Most importantly, from a blog point of view, the Sweet Indulgence robe was enthusiastically approved.

Today I started my serious quest for a silk substitute. Here, in no particular order, are the current contenders. There's Cascade Pima Tencel (the green at the top) and Superwash 200 (the teal at the right); Plymouth Oh My! (the green at bottom right) and Encore Colorspun (the blue at the left); Knit One Crochet, Too PJ's (the variegated at the top); Lion Cotton Ease (the coral in the middle); Maggi Knit's Maggi's Rag (the dark greyey green at bottom left).

Mostly culled from Knitche (because it's open on Monday). The Maggi's Rag is from the stash; at one point I had Scribble plans for it. The Lion Cotton Ease is from Michael's. It's the only cotton blend I could find that claims to be machine washable and dryable. The irony of possibly substituting the lowest end cotton for the $30.00+ per 100M silk does not escape me.

The next few weeks promise a lot of experimentation as I take a leaf out of No Sheep and knit "Geeky Things," since "swatching" sounds too much like homework.

And when experimentation palls, I can go back to Bubbling.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Boo! Hah, talking to you about yarn (and homework avoidance, despite the fact that my evening is booked even more than usual. Hmmm. That might say something unfortunate about my work ethic just now.) finally got me over here! Since we did just talk about yarn, I'm don't really have much I have left to say (though the blues look a lot more exciting in your picture than on the color cards.). I suppose I'll have to move on to the curtain (which I like very much) and ask if you're knitting it so that the stripes will be horizontal or vertical.

AmyArtisan said...

I'm knitting a scarf with the Cascade Pima Tencel right now (picked up @ Loopy during the "No Sheep" event) & am loving how it is knitting up - it is so soft to work with. I have a couple of balls of "Oh My!" that I picked up @ Stitches last year - haven't knit them yet but a friend has tried several times with her stash of them & the yarn just slides off the needles - that couple be a bit of a problem with such a big project. :)

jody said...

Hi there! I found your blog thru MDK and I just wanted to add my 2 cents on your robe yarn quest-I knit my daughter a sweate out of Lion Brand Cotton Ease and it truly is washable and dryable and I really reallylove it! It is so soft now! I had my doubts while knitting it b/c I wasn't sure if it would look cheap or wonky but now I'm thinking of making me something out of it b/c it is just so incredible soft and snuggly after a few washings. just passing on my experience if it helps any! nice to "meet" ya!