It's Here.

It came yesterday. I saw the mail truck pull up, and watched as the mail carrier approached... Is she coming here or going to the neighbors? Could it really be here so fast?

Yes, the Bohus kit had arrived. It only took about a week to get here from Sweden, which is pretty impressive.

The yarn is a gorgeous wool/angora blend, all hand dyed by Solveig Gustaffson. You can see in the first picture that she includes a handy color sample thingy for the chart- which is very nice as some of the colors are pretty similar. I've read through some of the instructions and the translation is awesome, so there shouldn't be any problems there. Now I just have to get used to the idea of making an entire sweater with sock weight yarn on teeny needles.

Speaking of the needles, I didn't have the right size so off to the yarn shop I went. They don't carry the size 1.5 suggested, so I picked up the size 0 needed for the ribbing and size 1. I'll see if I can get gauge with that, and if not then I'll try 2's and if that is too big I'll suck it up and order the 1.5.

While at the store, I may have accidentally got more yarn:

Classic Cotton, which I am presently attempting to make into something presentable for Cass. And this:

Shalimar Yarns Zoe (100% superwash wool, hand-dyed) in Juniper Berry. It's very smooshy and soft, and will probable become a pair of socks when the cotton top is done. Or before, if I get frustrated. And yes, I'm totally procrastinating starting the Bohus. I have to work up some courage just to swatch for it...

Practice Shmactice

For the past several weeks, I've been saving up my overtime $$ for Stitches East, but I found something I want more. A Bohus kit. Don't ask me how I got this particular bug up my ass, but I saw one somewhere (maybe the Yarn Harlot's blog?) and now I have to make one. So I'm skipping Stitches this weekend, and have ordered the Wild Apple sweater kit. For a minute, there was a little voice in my head saying, "You've never knit with two colors, let alone many. What if you hate it? What if you can't do it?" and other such things. I told that voice to shut the hell up and I'll do whatever I want. But eventually, like an indignant teenager, I realized that perhaps this voice was on to something. Perhaps I should crank out a practice fair isle project just to make sure... And so I give you my very first stranded knitting:

It's not perfect by any means, but it's not bad for a first try. My tension was much too tight with the white yarn on the first few rows, so those stitches don't have a lot of definition. But it was surprising to see how quickly my right hand picked up holding the yarn. The whole hat was done this afternoon- those little charts make you feel like you're making a lot a progress and keep you motivated.

The two chemo hats are done:

Try not to make fun of my weirdly shaped head- I just don't look good in most hats. It's a curse handed down from my mother's side of the family. And is it me, or do I have googly eyes in the second one? Anyway, they are done and hopefully will fit the intended recipient. The top one is the same from my previous post, and the second one is done in supple rib (it did wind up getting easier as it went) with Moda Dea Bamboo Wool.

The socks for Cass's little sister are coming along nicely, except for the part last night when I picked up stitches for the gusset before actually turning the heel. And I did that to both socks before I realized it. Awesome. But they are fixed, heels are turned, and I'm decreasing the gusset on one. Tofutsies is super splitty, but if you're just knitting along and not doing anything too tricky (or ripping back) it's not that bad. Which is good because I have two more skeins of it sitting in my stash.

These are just plain ol' simple socks... 2x2 rib down the cuff and on the top of the foot. Nothing crazy, as the recipient is 6 and will probably grow out of them quickly. Although I'm thinking of sending them with some literature on Chinese foot-binding practices...