Saturday, September 1, 2007

The Silver Slink

A while back I went to my first major yarn sale. Suss Design in LA was moving and liquidating. I can honestly say that I did not have a "stash" before this time. A few piles of yarn that were for projects yet unmade - but not a stash.

Oh the siren call of beautiful yummy yarn that is ridiculously cheap! I bought hand dyed cotton and a cotton tape that reminds me of the ocean, Koigu and mohair and hemp. I have plans for none of it and dreams for all of it.

Amongst the yarns were 7 hanks of the softest, slinkiest, vaguely shimmery soft grey bamboo yarn. Like silk, but better.



What to do? I want something drapey with great shape but a simple stitch. It needs to be elegant. It needs to be.... Coachella.

After reading some great posts about Coachella experiences, most notably randomcyn's blog http://www.cyn.ca/knit/tags/projects/coachella/, I cast on for the 29" when I have a 40" bust. The knit was quick and easy with the DK weight yarn held double on #9 Audi Naturals.

In the morning this little top was sexy but not outrageous. By the afternoon the yarn had stretched and I had a binder clip holding the front together so as not to display the girls to the general public! Yikes!

A quick trip to Nordstroms and I am now good to go. I present to you the Silver Slink!

Fairly incendiary, no? For those of you on the WestCoast, I got the halter Cami from the Brass Plum section at Nordstroms.

We spent this week on the Tangled Field of Gold - Eunny's Tangled Yoke Cardigan. I saw on knitting spaz's blog that she did both sleeves at once and I thought that was revolutionary. I read somewhere else that they did the sleeves FIRST and that sounded great too! I love the idea of having the sleeves ready to roll as soon as the body is done. This will mean that all the amazing, magic stuff, like joining the sleeves and knitting the yoke and then those yummy cables, will all happen right away in one huge reward.

Anyway, I have about 3.5 inches so far. I am way too excited about the fact that I have two sleeves that will be done at once. I used the tutorial I found here: http://www.tostetoes.com/twosocksoneneedle.htm I had to fiddle with the cast on of the second half of the first sleeve - she takes no pics of this cast on and takes it for granted that I would know how to do it. If I'm not the only dummy I will try to recreate and document. Of course, it also means that I double my mistakes (already made one, but too far back from me to care) I have high hopes for this one...