February 16, 2005

Unbelievably enough, I have not been able to knit a single stitch for a few days. [Busy, busy b.] But! Last week was spent knitting the first pieces of this Fluffy Cardigan and you know what? THIS is one of the yarns I'd want to have with me if I were marooned on an island in the Arctic Sea. (If I were marooned on an island in the Caribbean, I'd want to have ten sweaters' worth of Calmer, a couple of bamboo circs and sunblock SPF 45, bay-bee.)

The cardigan is knit using two yarns held together: Phildar Sunset and Phildar Kid Mohair. I thought it would be a little slow on the needles due to the fluffiness of the yarn, but it's a smooth and soft knit. I cast on for one sleeve, thinking I'd complete that piece and then work on Salina, but before I knew it was casting off the sleeve cap. So I decided to jump down the Sleeve Hole and immediately cast on for the second sleeve, thinking I'd get bored with it once I got past the cuff. But nooooooo! Before you can say "Sleeve Happy Rabbit" I was binding off the cap on the second sleeve, too. I was on a roll, I tell you! And to prove it, here are both sleeves together, looking all weary and rumpled in their unblocked state. I just love its sparkly, heathery goodness.

But that's not all. Here's the extra bonus: I was able to use the tubular cast-on* for the ribbing at the sleeve cuffs! I usually save the tubular cast-on for fine-gauge items, but it happened to work for this particular yarn. I just love that invisible, rolled edge that the tubular cast-on creates and will never stop singing its praises on this site. When I saw it work for this fluffy wonder I actually had a little seizure of happiness. Clearly, I'm easily amused.

*Again, my favorite resources for tubular cast-on continue to be Montse Stanley's Knitter's Handbook and Katharina Buss's Big Book of Knitting. I use different techniques depending on yarn weight and type. For the ribbing on this particular project I'm using the yarn-over method described in Big Book of Knitting.

In other news, I have some snail mail surprises to share: My thoughtful pal Chelee and her son sent my Captain Destructo some Valentine candy! (The Captain was so excited to get a surprise in the mail with a note written especially to him. He insisted on writing back to Chelee's son right away and going with me to the post office.) And my other pal Heather sent a package containing some Paton's yarn in CHOCOLATE [drools madly], some Ironstone Mohair in a beautiful shade (Mountain Grass), and some - get ready for this - Almond Roca [drools even more]. Yarn and chocolate. My kinda combo.

And to end this entry with a surprise of my own, here's a sneaky peek of what's coming up later this week!

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