Knit Picks April 2007 Anyone?

Before I lose it - because I seem to be losing EVERYTHING lately, has anyone taken a look at the new Knitpicks catalog? The April 2007 copy? If not, do read through it.







There are so many "keeper" articles that not only am I going to buy a summer sweater's worth of Coral Knitpicks Shine Worsted Weight yarn, but I'm going to probably eventually get their blocking board for the "Approachable Lace" they have inspired me to want to knit. Wow! What a great issue. I love their article on Lace Chart Reading (p. 14); the article on Lace Blocking (p. 17) and finally there is an article on Lace Dying (p. 22). Makes me want to do it ALL. I am also getting their little chart magnetic board to make knitting lace easier. It was only $9.99!!! What a bargain. Sally Melville was just speaking last week about the need to have a good chart holder to knit lace more easily and ergonimically.













I am hoping to make the Cross-Over Top by Melville in the Knitpicks Shine yarn. The original yarn it was knit with, Classic Elite's Waterspun has long since been discontinued. So I'm substituting the Shine instead. I hope it works. I ordered the skeins for it this afternoon. It's cheap yarn, but it knits up very nice, as evidenced by my friend Laura who used it recently and showed it around the knitting group.













While I was originally hoping to mostly knit out of my stash for the Stitches projects, I did a full and complete inventory of all my stash this afternoon. I realize that most of the yarn I have in stock are the makings of heavy wool sweaters, but spring/summer weight cotton or blends are few. So therefore, what I have isn't so much.













I have this:










Lily Chin's yarn that I was originally going to use for another cardigan from Knitty, that I've long since decided not to make. I like the color and texture of this yarn and was figuring I'd make a short sleeve pullover out of that, but low and behold it is DK weight yarn which doesn't match any of the patterns I've decided to make. Plus, it would take darn near FOREVER to knit with that tiny, thin yarn.





Then I ran across this:






It's Pearls and it's pretty, I like it okay, but again, it is DK weight. What was I thinking? It was on sale . . . that's what I was thinking. But am I going to use it? Hmmm. Fast sweater - no, I don't think that one will whip up in a month. Maybe 6 months.



So you see, the patterns I have in mind are mostly worsted weight and one or two are Bulky weight. I have only one yarn in the stash which is worsted. It's Berroco's Cotton Twist.








Oh heck, I didn't take a picture of that. I will take the photo later, but it's a verigated pink/peach cotton yarn that is attractive and will make 1 spring sweater.

What I've learned from all of this angsting today and stash analysis is the following:

• I should avoid buying projects months and years ahead of time My taste CHANGE and projects that seemed oh-so-appealing then do not excite me now.
• When buying sale yarn, I should stick to the old tried-and-true worsted weight, in colors that always appeal to me, greens, browns, reds, oranges and rusts- just name a Fall color and I'm pretty safe to like it forever.
• Just buy one major project at a time so that I can more accurately gauge how long it will take me, and if I do need to buy more yarn, I can probably find it more easily close after buying it than 2 years later.
• I should stay away from KnitPicks catalog because there are so many delectible things I want to buy.

Another thing I did today was something I've been putting off for months, and that is clipping the patterns from the knitting magazines of the projects I want to do. I found a couple of ideas for other things that may knit up faster than the ones I've selected. The thing is: my goal is to get 2-3 knit tops done that I can wear to Stitches. I think I said 3-4 the other day, and if that happens then WONDERFUL, but I don't want to overwhelm myself so I'll start with a more realistic goal of 2-3 sweaters. Also, I give myself full permission to STOP knitting a pattern at any point if it becomes too annoying or hard for me to quickly whip up. Therefore, there may be some project switching!! Bear with me, folks.

I also want to get a couple of small accessory or other projects done to supplement my wardrobe on the days I won't have a sweater to wear. For example, I might have a cute scarf or vest to wear instead. We'll see, I'll just get done what I can get done and that's that. I've said my peace and I've counted to three . . . . now I'm going to go knit a bit.