Swatch! June 29, 2007
With the yarn all nicely wound, I was finally able to swatch
for the Mystery Stole. I really like laceweight yarn knit up on size six needles, and I just happen to have a KnitPicks set of those (nice and pointy), so I dug them out. I gathered those up with the swatch pattern, instructions, wool, and beads, and got to swatching. Before I knit the top garter bit I added two beads from each of the four colors that I bought. From the left are the clear rainbow, then the silver lined. These are both beautiful beads, but I don’t like them on the yarn as much as I thought I would. The center picture is the full swatch.
  
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The picture on the right shows the gray/lilac, then the peacock. I’m vacillating. Sometimes I like the gray/lilac the best—which totally surprises me—and sometimes I like the peacock best. I have to decide. The first clue has been released, and beading starts right away. Eek! 
The Monkey socks are coming right along. I’ve finished the gussets and am now working my way toward the toe.
In other news, I don’t know if you noticed (no reason you should) but I got a very unexpected and totally cool comment to my Forget-Me-Not sock pattern the other day. From Susan at Crystal Palace Yarns. Anyway, we exchanged a few email messages, and she offered to send me a couple balls of their new Maizy yarn. It’s 82% corn fiber, and 18% elastic. For free. To test. Eeee! Uh, yeah. Awesome! The yarn arrived in yesterday’s mail.
Not only did I get enough of this very interesting corn yarn for a pair of socks (color 1001, Night Shades), but she tucked a set of size 1-1/2 double pointed needles in the package, too. Awesome. Just awesome. I’m so excited. The yarn is nice and soft and elastic. It’ll be interesting to knit with corn of all things. I’ve offered to knit a pair of short socks for Dave out of it. He thinks they’ll go great with his topsiders.
And it smells good.
On another note entirely, Dave sent a link to me yesterday… We’d been talking about the big baritone saxophones recently. And last weekend at a friend’s party we talked to a guy who plays the sax professionally. He plays with an orchestra and has done quite a few movies. So, anyway, here’s Jay playing a baritone saxophone.
Robin June 29
WooHoo, can’t wait to watch the progress on this. I can’t see the beads very well on my monitor. Not enough to give you an opinion. Now I have another yarn I want to try. I’ll wait to hear your comments first, though. I do like the colorway. Wow, needles to boot, lucky you.
Susan in SoCal June 29
Love the baritone sax! What a talent, indeed.
The mystery stole sounds intriguing, and it’s sure to be so beautiful. I can’t wait to see how that turns out. Also, I love the purple yarn. That is an awesome group of shades!
Mikki June 29
Cypress! Wow! That’s what? 15 miles away? ;-)
KarenJoSeattle June 30
Very cool about the Crystal Palace link. Congratulations.
Karen B. July 1
That’s great news about the Forget-Me-Not anklets! Mebbe you’ll start designing for this yarn???
Meanwhile, nice progress on the Mystery Stole :-)
~Kristie July 2
You’re right .. it is difficult to decide which beads go best with your yarn. I really do like them both! I love that we’re using the same yarn and you’re using size 6 needles and I’m using size 3 needles. Then again, I do think you knit much tighter than I do, so I’ll be interested to see each of ours side by side.
You chose the perfect yarn for your Monkey socks. It really shows off the patterning beautifully.
CONGRATS on the comment, the yarn & needles from Crystal Palace! Maybe they are hoping you would design a sock pattern out of that yarn so they could publish it on their site?