S takes an uncustomary macho stand ..

... just for me of course!



Yep, S's fingerless mitts are now done. This morning, before 6am I'll point out, I asked the fellow if he'd doing a little modeling for me before he left for school. The generous soul that he is, he did (with only one snide glove comment). =]



All in all, I'm pleased with how these turned out. They are a bit wide through the back of the hand, but I'm going to soak them in hot water and see if we can't shrink them down just a little.



One of the funniest things about knitting these is I realized how much bigger S's hand are than mine.



They just swallow my hand up!



Fingerless Gloves by J Campbell
a little over 1 skein of Alpaca with a Twist Highlander (45% baby alpaca, 45% merino wool, 8% microfiber, 2% viscose)
in a natural color (Color 096, Lot 229
US size 3 dpns
cast on October 21, 2007
finished October 28, 2007

Great yarn, easy pattern. A little warmth for my love to take with him to Amsterdam (he's going for a school related trip in November... exciting!).

***

Despite getting the mitts done, it feels like this weekend just flew by! S and I did some work on the house ... painting the garage, weeding the yard. Really fun stuff. We also went to see another movie though (this really is a record), The Darjeeling Limited. Very quirky, very funny. I'd recommend it.

Issac and I also read a few blogs and played around on Ravelry a bit (he loves that mouse you know!).



But one of the most exciting things... I realized that I already have yarn to make a Rebecca pattern I've been eying!

On Saturday, I went into Knitwitz to buy a second skein of the alpaca to finish S's fingerless gloves and discovered a 50% off section and that everything else in the store was 15% off. Now this was good, but bad, if you know what I mean. I made one implulse buy and decided I'd go home, think about what I needed and then go back to the store yesterday.

This was a very good plan.

I spent some time on Ravelry looking for yarn substitutions for a couple of sweaters I've been planning to make and considering what Knitwitz sells. Now I don't know about you, but I find substituting yarns to be very, very challenging. Just when I think I may be narrowing in on something, it all falls apart.

This was my experience yesterday and just when I was about to give up, I realized that one of the yarns I showed for my mock-Rhinebeck post should work for the Rebecca (issue 32) Cable Sweater #25 pattern. I bought this magazine/booklet during my visit to Oklahoma last month and have just be considering it. With the possibility of sale yarn, it suddenly rose to a higher threat level.

So yesterday afternoon I did a bit of swatching.



Eureka... I think it will work! Now of course, I believe swatches lie so I won't believe it until the sweater's done, but I think I have gauge. The only problem is that I think I'll have to order more yarn. I bought this for a Fitted Knits pattern but have since lost interest. That sweater was knit in a much looser gauge and so needed a bit less yarn.

Hmmm.... should I order now or just wait and see? Should I cast on for this sweater now or make myself work more on my current sweater WIP first? The dilemmas!