Craft Enabled, Domestically Disabled

Yarngasm!

So, while visiting my friend Anna (who's a crocheter) this weekend, we went yarn shopping. And I managed to stock up on some great cheap substitute yarn for all the patterns I want to make.

I managed to solve the problems mentioned in this post.

• I bought some more light purple yarn (slightly different shade, but close enough) to make the main body of the Candy sweater in. Now I can make the sleeves longer without having to sub in dark purple randomness.
• I managed to find substitute yarn for the Lucie and Cruelty patterns in Knitty. (I don't know if I am actually going to put laceups on my ass or not when making that, though. Or maybe I'll move them to the front. It's not like I have ass to show off, really.) For dirt cheap, too.
• And I found some interesting variegated yarn to make the wrap sweater here in.

I wasn't wanting to order a ton from KnitPicks and then deal with Mail Drama again, so this saves me some trouble. Huzzah! Now I have enough yarn stored up to last me through fall and winter!

I'm going to work on the wrap sweater first, I think, and work on the rest off and on or something. This is too exciting!

Knitting update, sans photos.

I have now finished the Western Jacket (sans fringe, because I am not western) in my favorite shade of yarn, and it looks gorgeous. Seriously, I thought this was going to come out looking crappy, but it really looks NICE. I wore it to work today, and it's cute as the dickens. I've got about a month to wear it before TEH COLD takes over, so I'll have to wear it a lot!

Alas, I can't show y'all any damn photos. *cry*

Next, on to the Candy sweater. Though I have kind of a dilemma with it: I don't like 3/4 sleeves, especially in cold weather. (There's no point in wearing a sweater for warmth if your arms are cold, and if it's warm enough for me not to need the sleeve, it's too hot to wear the sweater.) I have JUST ENOUGH yarn left over from the scrapped sweater in the light purples to make the pattern as written. But not enough to make the damn sleeves longer in lavender.

I am debating: how bad and ugly would it look if I subbed in another dark purple to add extra length to the sleeves? Would it look ridiculous?

Probably, right?

In other knitting news, new Knitty is up, and I am eyeing two patterns.

This one is quite lovely, BUT: the yarn she uses is hand-made by the designer, cashmere, and costs $38 PER SKEIN. Okay, so they're huge skeins, but my gawd, who can afford that?! It'd be $142 for me to replicate that! *chokes* Must find substitute if I ever do that one.

This one makes me drool.

And reading this article makes me want to try some kind of sweater like that with all of the (new) stash of worsted weight yarn that I got from where I volunteer.

No more photos, again.

My laptop broke and is probably not worth fixing. So, no computer, no net access at home, and no photos here for weeks. Waaaah.

I am attempting to make this dress. It is not going well. By the time I cut the 90 inches of strap, I only had enough space to make a mini-circle skirt, and I do NOT do minis. So I just cut some of the leftover fabric and was going to wrap the fabric around me...but much like the kimono dress, the fabric did not wrap all the way around me. So I slapped a panel of fabric behind where it wrapped and the skirt now has a couple of diagonal lines going along the ass. Oh well, whatever.

I think I've found my next project.

After a stint of looking up free knitting projects that could use yarn that I already damn own on the internets while on my volunteering shift last night, I think I have found one. It's unique, not huge, and despite the funky (probably discontinued, I think) yarn it's made with, it fits just fine with worsted. It's this sweater.

Of course, I have a ginormous stomach, so I'm not sure if the banding thing will either (a) make it look more slimming, or (b) just make it look like I've got giant arrows pointing to my gut. But checking my yarn stash, the most I've got in any one color of worsted yarn isn't enough to do the entire sweater in all one color, so I may have to suck it up and go with it.

We shall see. At any rate, it looks intriguing to make, and that's the important thing.