six and a half stitches

MY LITTLE STORY

So the story goes a little something like this::
Spurred on by the beautiful dark grey wrap top for Petite 6.5st, I immediately wanted to continue this crazy knitting wave, and cast on for something else. A weekend at my parents gave ample opportunity to indulge in some quality knitting time, and so began the frantic decision making of pattern, and yarn. To be honest, nothing jumped out at me, but I deluded myself into thinking the Ballerina Top in the Debbie Bliss Quick Baby Knits book would satisfy my needs. And that I should attempt to use the Opal Gems wool I was originally going to use for Max's Charlie Jumper. 3 rows into that piece, and the magic wasn't happening - I know, I'm fickle. So perusing the book, and feeling sorry for my little knitting needles now lying abandoned beside me, I flicked the page to a very simple garter stitch cardigan and booties set. Forget the booties. For now. Just concentrate on the cardigan. So simple, I would normally have overlooked it, but, but...then again...

The wool. The colour. Particularly the colour. The blissful way they photographed it all. The colour. The wool. That would be my child. Of course it would! And she has to have that colour, in that wool. Now.

Trouble is, Jaeger Cashmina is a) expensive, and b) very much discontinued. So discontinued that I can only buy a light grey. In the whole world, I can only buy light grey from one supplier online. Not the lusciously lovely slate lavender colour pictured. Cashmere, cashmere, cashmere. Hmmm. Debbie Bliss does a Baby Cashmerino wool - but colour representation online for Debbie Bliss is notoriously unreliable from past experience (remember I don't do shade cards for some reason). I have trawled through site after site listing colour references and cross checking to the point of screaming. I really should buy a shade card. Stockists in Sydney? Forget it.

But in another book, there's a pattern with a lovely looking cashmere in it. Scramble in the bookshelf - Oh look. Joseph Galler Pashmina yarn. $55US for 50gms. I love my unborn child, but not that much thankyou. Frustration was rapidly approaching. Can it really be that hard to find a wool which is right for this project? Does it matter? Will the baby care? Will anyone care? Will anyone notice? I will. And that's the point.

You know I'm getting desperate when I start trawling through boxes. And trawling again. And pulling stuff out. And forgetting I owned stuff till I see it again. And thus we come to Classic Elite Yarn Miracle from my Better The Pal swap last year. It's Alpaca Tencel. Soft. Slate. I think I described it at the time as Grey. But it has a definite purple tinge. A deep slate lavender tinge. It was in the box of wool that has all the wool I really want to knit with no matter what the project. Perfect. Although, perhaps I should reserve judgement till I'm past the 4th row/5cm mark. And you'll never believe it, but I think I've got plenty of wool this time!

Trouble is, while using wool from stash is noble, I kind of really wanted to buy the wool especially for this one - a special gesture to this little one inside me. But in the absence of a beautiful slate lavender cashmere bounding into my life in the next few days, we're pushing ahead with the Classic Elite.

I'm going to keep thinking about cashmere aren't I?

As quickly as the energy comes, it goes. Tiredness took hold this last week, and although I thought about things, a lot, I got very little done. This has to be the most frustrating part - thinking things through, wanting to do something, but just simply not having the energy to do it. I escaped to my parents with Max for the weekend, and managed to have some rest, relax, and quiet time, which has been great.

What I did do last week was send and receive parcels. My backtack3 parcel has gone to it's new owner in Switzerland and should be arriving any day now. Bunny of Bling comes equiped with her own sleeping bag, plus matching goodies, which I hope Manuele and her children will like. The ribbon trims have been sent off to Bara, and they too should be arriving soon. And very belatedly the gift tags will be sent out tomorrow (Dacia's site isn't reading well tonight, so I hope it fixes itself, and the link takes you somewhere other than fatal error type pages...)

On the receiving end, my backtack3 package arrived from Japan - and I am blown away by the thoughtfullness, and array of bags and things, and food, and stuff Alex has sent. I need to let some beautiful pictures do the talking for this one, but it will have to wait till I have daylight. As an interim, check out the bags she made on her blog - and then guess how happy I have been to open them and see what is inside after the cute little messages she left on each one!!

And another package from Kelly of robot fabrics for Max Stuff. In exchange, I sent her daughter Brynne a pair of pyjamas made from some of the Prints Charming fabrics. Again photos once I get some daylight.

Over at backtack, we've made a little announcement for those participating in the current round. If you haven't read it, go over and see what we've got cooked up for the next few weeks!

And next up I'll tell you the latest wool obsessional saga. It's been a while since we had one of those stories.