A Tale of Two Yarns

I am going to start with talking about some pretty yarn that I am excited about. The store I teach at just got in a bunch of amazing Canadian dyed yarns and I could not resist this beautiful skein of Sweetgeorgia BFL Sock which is going to be a summer sweater for Little O. It has the most perfect green ever in it. The bright one in the middle, at the top. It’s a green that I have been seeking for a long time; good green yarns are hard to find (something to do with the eye being able to identify so many different shades of green, so it gets a lot pickier).

I like the color name, Lakeshore Drive, because it fills my head with images of mid-century modern Chicago, which I will have to find a way to work in as an inspiration for the actual sweater. I am purposely not winding this one up until next week so I get a handle on some other projects, because honestly, with those colours and the extreme plush-ness of the yarn I would just start knitting and not stop until I somehow had a scarf around my neck.

(This project made me so sad I did not take a very good picture of it in hopes that one day I would forget how horribly it went and try again.)

Now for the not so nice. I bought some Cascade 220 Superwash to knit Grove with. I had been in love with the pattern for a while, and thought it would make an awesome Christmas present The intendee wanted something in a vibrant fuchsia-ish color and this skein was perfect. I was pretty excited. I swatched a bit to make sure it would work and tried to overlook the fussiness of the cuff before I started up the hand and it’s amazing twisted stitch pattern. When I kitchener-ed the top together, my heart sunk. I knew there had been a problem the whole time I was knitting, but I kept telling myself after every row that it would work itself out by the top.The yarn was just soooo incredibly springy and I knit so tight (but of course not while swatching) that they ended up small and a little leaning (like the Tower of Piza) from all the “energy” in the yarn (I think it was just that particular skein, I’ve used the yarn since and it was not that crazy at all).  The color was so pretty, but also strange. In natural light it was a bright red-violet, but under my harsh kitchen lighting it became an insanely intense blue-violet. Like the color of UV bulbs. It was kind of crazy. I gave up after the first mitten (which took me a while to get started for some reason), frogged, and made these instead. I do want to reknit these at some point, but I think it will take something like the first snow of the season next fall to get me excited about trying again.