Clouds, Questions, and Cotton Candy

A quick update as to what I've been working on:

I finished the Cloud Bolero a week or so ago, but then got too busy to block it, so here it is now, finished and done.


I also finished Blackberry (finally) which was first supposed to be Christmas present, then a birthday present (maybe now an early Mother's Day present?) for Mom. I ended up giving it to her earlier this week, now that the weather is getting nicer and all. Oops.


The Drawstring Raglan is currently hibernating. I'm working with Jagger Spun Zephyr Wool-Silk. I love how this yarn knits up - but the colors are a bit wonky. I bought this yarn online, so I wasn't really sure what I was going to get when it came to colors. Initially, I picked out white, pewter, charcoal, and black. Seems simple enough, right? Not when "white" really means "winter white." Now, winter white is a lovely color, with subtle warm undertones - which unfortunately clash with the coolness of the grays it's supposed to be paired with. I tried to make it work - it didn't. Damn. So now I have 2 dilemmas: 1 - which 3 other colors to buy, to finish the cardigan, and 2 - what to do with 630 yards each of the pewter, charcoal, and black? For the former, I'm thinking either [a] daffodil (light yellow), ice blue, and indigo, or [b] mushroom (light beige), ice blue, and some shade of red. Fortunately, I have the opportunity to change my mind 12 more times, as I'm currently broke and can't afford to buy the yarn right now anyways. As for using up the already purchased colorways - I think a short sleeved pullover would be nice, using the 3 strands knit together. I still have to swatch for gauge, etc., and am on a mad pattern hunt - 630 yards really isn't much.

In the meantime, I've started knitting a beach cover up. This was a project I'd wanted to start last summer, but it quickly got shelved when the yarn decided to tangle itself into an incomprehensible mess. It would simply slide off the ball in chunks at a time.


I figured I could contain that by housing it in an old nylon stocking, which was fine, until I tried to pull from the stocking. What a disaster. Eventually, I rewound all the balls into cakes and let them sit until I was no longer mad at the yarn. I work decidedly better when I'm not angry.

Anyways, so far so good, as far pulling from the ball is concerned. I'm getting used to working with the slug, which no doubt forms an interesting pattern -- one that, upon initial reaction, is slightly reminiscent of the aftermath of eating too much cotton candy then going for a ride on the tilt-a-whirl. I hope this is a temporary condition. I hope that - as with stomach upsets - it'll get better as the day goes on and just work itself out.