While I wait for the yarn to arrive from Dee, I’ve been cleaning out my knitting to-do list. The socks, as you saw, were finished last week. The last of the small shop samples got themselves knit up late yesterday. I got four samples out of the one small ball of yarn I had. There are just four grams—about 31 yards—of yarn left over. Seems I could have made one of the smaller samples just a tad larger, ah well. It was better not to risk it. Running out would have been a real pain.

From left to right, the samples below are for Cirrus, Friendship (including beads), Canterbury Bells, and Pacific Islands. They were easiest to knit up as small samples. I hope Donna likes them.

Anyway, the yarn is from Kaalund Yarns in Australia. It’s their Classic Two, 100% Australian wool, 50g ball, 389 yards (here on Ravelry). The color I used is called Nectarine. The samples are for Jumbuk Fibres in San Juan Capistrano. The yarn was a dream to knit with, and it blocks well.

I recently got a copy of Nancy Bush’s Knitted Lace of Estonia. Gorgeous. Stunning. I love every shawl in it. And the stitch patterns! Dreamy. I picked one, and started knitting a tiny swatch.

If you haven’t figured this out about me yet, I always want to do something differently that what I’ve done before. I get bored easily. The differences don’t always have to be big, but they need to be there to save my sanity. I might end up knitting 50 or maybe even 100 triangular shawls over the course of time, for instance, but you can bet they’ll all be quite different from one another, in some way. Adding nupps is one way to make the garment different from any of its predecessors. I’ve had occasion recently to add nupps to fingering weight yarn, but you know what? They’re a lot easier to execute with lace weight yarn. They show up better, too.

Oh yeah! Last night when I finished up the fourth shop sample, I knit the sample yarn I got from SWTC at Stitches West. This is a 100% bamboo yarn called, funnily enough, Bamboo. The yarn knit up like a dream. It’s super soft, and has lovely drape. They suggested size 6 needles, which I used. I haven’t washed the sample yet, but unless it the sample shrinks or the yarn grows a bit in the wash, I’d need to go down a needle size. Big surprise. I do tend to knit a bit on the loose side. This colorway, Satchel, isn’t really my thing, but they have some that are more to my liking: Plum, Brown, Red, Murgahogany, Shark Tail. I’d need to see them in person, though, before committing to a sweater’s worth of any of them.

Also up: The amaryllis bud has grown. Quite a bit.

After reading Friday’s post, Karen let me know about a Seattle knitter, Erika, who knit a sweater for a tree back in 2005. She nicely posted her pattern.

Ricki’s a good little helper. She lent irreplaceable support while I took pictures of the lace and nupp swatch.