Next Up

I struggled for a bit about what project to start next. I enjoyed working on that Pea Pod Baby Set; it was the perfect balance of interesting lace and a quick, fairly easy knit. So I leafed through some books and found this sporty baby ensemble in my new Knit 2 Together book:

I started on this immediately, and it's moving right along. As I said before, I do love the baby knits. They're so quick and safisfying. I don't even have any babies to knit for at the moment, but I'm sure some will come along soon, and I will be good and ready. Because this sweater is pretty much all stockinette, I'm using it as an opportunity to practice purling continental. I am very comfortable with the continental knit stitch, but I still really struggle with the purl. I'm getting better at it, but still have issues with keeping a consistent guage. Soon I will have it mastered though.

We bought ourselves a Prius on Saturday. They're not the sleekest looking vehicles, but it is fun to drive and it has some really nice features, not the least of which is the amazing gas mileage. Here's our fancy charcoal gray model.

Today we decided we needed to take that baby out on the road, so we went for a drive through Napa County. The city of Napa seemed pretty darn quiet at noon on a Sunday so we just did a drive through. We stopped for lunch in Yountville, and then on to St. Helena for some walking around. Turns out they have a very nice yarn store in St. Helena, with a very helpful and friendly owner, and a beautiful selection of yarn. And, lucky for me, they were having a huge sale. Lots of their yarn was 40% off. Woohoo. Score! So I picked up a few items...

Some Jo Sharp Alpaca Silk Georgette to make this "Lacy Hug Me Tight" from Knit 2 Together. The pattern calls for Blue Sky Alpaca Silk, which, as it turns out was also 40% off. I'm kicking myself now for not getting some. But I think this yarn will also be lovely.

A ball of pink Rowan Calmer to make a Shedir hat. I never see the Calmer on sale. So I'm very pleased to have scored a ball for 40% off.

And 5 balls of Elsebeth Lavold Cotton Patine, which is a lovely, soft light worsted/dk weight cotton . I don't know what I'll make with this, but I was thinking some sort of summery tank or tee. I'm open to suggestions.

Oh how I wish my turn would come up at Ravelry. I'm thinking that will help me answer my what should I do with this yarn questions in the future. But for now there are still 16,048 people in line ahead of me, so I will be patient and try to figure it out on my own.