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:

The felted slipper craze that began last year doesn’t seem like it’s fading away. The Sailor Slippers, often striped knit and felted slippers made with super bulky yarn, because the project of the moment late last year (check out more knit slipper options in this post all about sailor slippers) and they’re still consistently popular with knitters.

Which makes sense because they are fun and fast to knit, and seeing them go from this giant thing to something that actually fits a foot feels a little magical.

I have always loved felting (in fact my first book was about felting knitting) and it’s always fun for me to see people rediscover this technique.

If you’ve knit enough plain slippers to fit all the feet you know, maybe it’s time to stitch up some tabi style slippers instead.

Maymade Knits has designed these cute tabi ballerina slippers, made with bulky yarn and felted. They’re worked flat at first and then in rounds, and are available in 10 EU sizes (the Internet tells me add 31 to your American shoe size to get your EU size). The designer says the slippers are meant to have a close fit and you should choose a size a little smaller than your foot for the ideal fit.

The pattern includes a video tutorial along with the written pattern.

You can grab this pattern on Ravelry. The same designer has her own version of the striped felted slipper as well, called Sarah’s Striped Slippers. These are worked in super bulky yarn and have a contrasting foot and a striped body. These are knit flat and seamed and there are 7 size options available. Check that pattern out here if you’re looking for a more traditional slipper shape. They also look roomier so you can wear them with socks if you like.

[Photo: Maymade Knits]

Next Pattern:

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