Happy Leap Year Day!

For Project Spectrum Fire, I am making the Rusted Root Sweater by Zephyr, using a yarn called Cestari.



This yarn is really pretty. It's a blend of 75% cotton and 25% wool. On the label it says that it has natural lanolin oils in the wool, and i can feel my hands getting soft while I knit it. It's such a great tweed-y yarn, with a great drape. I bought it in a yarn store in Sun City, Arizona called "Knitters Nook" and I've never seen it before or since.



I am making some modifications to the pattern. I cast on with a provisional cast on using some orange cotton yarn. After I finish the rest of the sweater I'll remove the provisional cast on and knit the neck. I did this because I didn't know what kind of neck I would like yet. I needed some time to think about it, while I knit the sweater. I'm thinking lots of garter stitch or something textured like that. My decision will depend on how much yarn I have left at the end!

I also am not doing the lace pattern. I really like that lace pattern, but I didn't want to have to wear anything underneath this sweater but a bra. You ever see those knitting magazine photos where they have lace right over the boobs, but then they photoshop out the nipples? It's creepy! I'll probably do some kind of lace or textured stitch at the bottom. I'm making it up as I go.



In the last picture you can see the stitch markers I'm using. I won these stitch markers from Spin Out, along with all the nice yarn I showed in the last post. The markers are from Mad Caterpillar. I adore them! The set came with 2 large markers for big needles and a bunch of smaller ones that are perfect for this project. I always avoided stitch markers like these because I thought the little beads and wire would get tangled with the yarn, but it's not happening like that! The markers are called "Snag Free" and it really is true! Thanks for donating them!

This weekend I am going to explore 2 New Jersey yarn stores, Modern Yarn in Montclaire, and Closeknit in Ho-Ho-Kus (aka Ridgewood?). Closeknit is having a huge sale starting tomorrow and a birdy told me that Modern Yarn has an "obscene amount of Koigu." Both are excellent reasons to visit a yarn store, don't you think?

This post has been brought to you by the color pink. I bet you can't believe I posted again so soon, huh?

posted by illanna at 3:06 PM