Ravelry Party at the Knitting Nest

When Jules was here, I wasn't going to go to any yarn shops. But The Knitting Nest had their Ravelry party while he was here. There was a sale and a party. So I kept it short, and Jules was very sweet and patient. Here he is in front of the famous wall of Cascade.

Speaking of Cascade, I bought some. I also got the skein of Aslan Trends Guanaco on the right. (Ironically, it is a wool/alpaca blend that contains no Guanaco fiber.)

Jules has been hinting that he wants me to knit him some gloves. I decided this was a good chance for him to pick out some yarn for the gloves. I figured this would keep him busy, but in less than five minutes he came back with the Guanaco. I told him the gauge would be a little big for gloves, and they would be hand wash only. He said that was fine. This was the color he wanted. Apparently he doesn't know the time and fondling effort that you're supposed to put in when you shop for yarn.

I think I exercised some restraint. They had new shades of Hill Country Yarns Instant Gratification Sock Yarn. I was tempted to buy some, especially the pink and brown colorways. But I didn't.

There were a couple of local Etsy people selling their wares at the party. Here are the stitch markers from Entrelac. That is Ana herself in the upper left corner.

I also met Robincat, who was there spinning her yarn.

I was tempted to buy some of her yarn, but I had to show some restraint. (I did buy some stitch markers, though.) Besides, I already have a skein of her yarn in my stash.

There are a couple more pictures of the party, as well as other pictures from Jules' visit on Flickr.

Swatching Sunday: This took more effort than you would think

This week's swatch looks unimpressive, but it took a lot of thinking, planning and unraveling to get there.

I was riffing off the ball band dishcloth stitch I worked on a couple of weeks ago. I'm not going into great detail because I have plans for this little swatch.

I will say this swatch was knit using Cascade 220 in Christmas Red 8895 and Black 8555 and US size 5 aluminum needles from my Boye Needlemaster. The swatch is unwashed and unblocked.

Swatching Sunday: Cascade 220

For the record, I did swatch this on Sunday, during the Oscars. I'm just now getting around to posting it.

Would you believe I've been knitting this long and I've never used Cascade 220? At least I hadn't until Sunday.

Both of these swatches were knit using Cascade 220 in Christmas Red 8895 and Black 8555 and aluminum needles from my Boye Needlemaster. They are unwashed and unblocked.

This first swatch is a basic gauge swatch. The bottom section is knit with US size 7 and is about 9 stitches per 2 inches and about 7 rows per inch. The middle section is knit with US size 6 and is about 10 stitches per 2 inches and 7 rows per inch. The top section is knit with US size 5 and is about 10.5 stitches per 2 inches and 7 rows per inch.

You read that right. All the row counts are about the same.

This swatch is knit with US size 5, and is in the classic Ballband Dishcloth pattern. (Csn you believe I've never knit one of those, either?)