Substituting Yarn, or, It’s Supposed To Look Like That!

My current WIP is the Sunrise Circle Jacket from Interweave Press. Apparantly I didn’t do the math real well when I figured that the amount of hand-dyed, one of a kind yarn I bought over a year ago was enough.

Almost, but not quite.

What to do? I wrote to the company that I bought this yarn from www.yarnhollow.com to see if maybe, just maybe they had more of the same dye lot. Not likely, but what the heck, worth taking a chance. Then, I ran down to my stash room (what? You don’t have enough stash to take up a whole, entire room with no space to spare?) to see what I had enough of to kind of “go” with this. I found 5 different yarns that I did have enough of to finish the jacket.

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So, I’m almost done with the first sleeve/front combo. and while I’ll have enough of the original to maybe make the next sleeve, I’m still out a front. I’m going to do this:

Since these sleeves/fronts are made in one piece each (left sleeve knitted in one piece with the left front, and right sleeve knitted in one piece with the right front) I think I’ll take the different yarn and do the right sleeve/front. There are two yarns that I’ve narrowed it down to, so I’m going to do 2 rows of one, then 2 rows of the other, then 2 rows of the first, then 2 rows of the second, then… whew. dizzy! You get the point.

See the picture? It’s kind of “stripey” when doing rows of each color. Don’t like it. And the bamboo splash green is too close to the original color. So, while I’m still holding out for the original (she did email me back and said she could dye another hank of it for me – happy dance!) I might be able to go with the brown. I like it, the brown (in the picture it’s brown, actually, there’s blues, purples, teals, burgandy’s and a gold fleck), so as usual, I never really know what I’m going to do in the end.
When someone asks me about it, I’ll just tell them that I planned it that way!

My other current WIP (can it really count if you haven’t cast on yet, but are planning to any day?) is the Mossy Roving’s cardigan from Jane Thornley’s current KAL.

Stay tuned…..

Next Pattern:

Not too long ago I was seeing a crochet pattern for a glasses holder shaped like a bear all over the Internet. It was super cute, and also useful as a place to put your glasses on your bedside table instead of just throwing them somewhere random.

This project stewed in my brain for a little while and I decided I needed to make a knit version, but I didn’t want to make a bear. If you know anything about me you might know that I’m a cat person, so of course my version had to be a cat.

The base is just a basic little basic worked from the center out to the desired size, then up the sides as long as you want them. Knit some ears and add embellishments to make it whatever kind of animal you want.

The way I figured out to work the base from the center out was to use a crochet cast on, which gives you an easier way to pick up stitches from the back of the cast on than if you worked a more traditional cast on for a knitting project. It’s kind of fun to do things in a different way from time to time.

This little project is adorable if I do say so myself, and even as a plain little basket not made into an animal it’s a cute way to keep your glasses or other little things in one place. I’m tempted to make one for my desk to hold pens or even little little scissors and sewing needles that are always on my desk but somehow always seem to get lost on my desk.

If you need a little holder for your glasses on your table, check out the pattern at Our Daily Craft.

[Photo: Our Daily Craft]

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