Knitting Ups and Downs

Despite the fact that not a ton of group knitting happened on my Romney Women trip, I did bring a project with me that I made a lot of progress on. That project is a sweater for Troy. I'm so happy that Troy wants a sweater from me. You know, I actually started one for him a million years ago. It was just plain - no colorwork, no cables, no nothing. And it was so unbearably boring that I gave up on making it. Which is probably a good thing because I had never made an adult sized sweater before, and even now that I've made several I still struggle with sizing. Anyway. Troy wants a sweater and I want to make him one! 

He picked out the pattern - such a lovely cable pattern with sort of a funnel neck. I love it. And I had just the right yarn for it. It was perfect except one little thing - I had nowhere near enough yarn. I tried to convince myself that I did - the yarn came from a project that I made during the viewing of the winter Olympics in Korea...whenever that was. I remember that I wanted to make a really big scarf. But I guess I had more Olympics to watch than I realized because the resulting scarf was so ridiculously massive that I never wore it. It was too narrow for a blanket and too long for....anything. So a couple of years ago I just ripped it out, determined to find the right project for the beautiful yarn. I thought I had found it. That scarf wrapped around my torso at least twice! Surely it would be enough!

It took me almost completing the back before I had to be honest with myself and admit I didn't have enough. My plan was to go to a few yarn stores (I mean, if I had to go I just HAD to go, right?) and hunt down a really similar yarn. Turns out, that is an impossible task.

I told my fellow family knitters about this problem, we tried to come up with ideas like making the sleeves a different color or turning it into a sweater vest. My cousin Luanne and I decided that after our return to Utah we would get together to visit a new yarn shop in downtown SLC and see what we could find.

I think it was just that next week that Luanne made the trip to the valley for us to meet up and check out Handworks on Pierpont Avenue. And guess what. We found something, alright! (No, it was not the right yarn.) What we found was first, the most wonderful lovely yarn shop I've ever been to. I walked in and just about died of pure happiness and delight. Brick wall, beautiful old floor, steel beams, and best of all, a puppy. Oh yeah, and a ton of really fabulous yarn. 

 

(I added this sweater to my knit-wish list)

Second, we found that the woman behind the counter was very familiar to me - she had worked at Blazing Needles, my former LYS that closed. I was so thrilled to discover that this woman, who was by far the most helpful and knowledgeable person I'd ever been helped by, had opened this shop. She is so wonderful. So wonderful, in fact, that she was able to talk me out of trying to patch together the sleeves out of some other yarn. AND she was able to correctly guess the brand of yarn I was trying to find. She didn't carry it, but helped me find the website. Happily I went home to order the yarn!

Only....the yarn I got was so not right. Way too heavy of a yarn and totally the wrong color. I tried again. Found the right yarn, right weight....wrong color. Observe:

Time to give up. I went back to Handworks and just bought the right amount of a different yarn and started again. I'm almost done with the back again. Have I ripped out the first attempt? Not yet. I can't quite bring myself to do it. But when I do, I'll go back to my new favorite LYS (Local Yarn Shop) to ask what I can make with it.