Fishy, K-k-k-Kardigan, and Why You Should Own a Ballwinder

Last day of January! To me, February is like turning the corner on the worst of winter. Sure, we can still have plenty of snow and cold before spring is truly sprung, but days are getting longer, and we at least have a shot at a "warmer" day on occasion. At this point, that's all we've got.

In search of more birdseed for my ravenous flocks, I ended up close enough to a yarn store yesterday that I decided to drop in and see if I could find something to get started on a new project. Luckily, I had remembered to throw my iPod in my bag, so that I had all my notes about yarn types and yardages for the some of the patterns I had in mind.

Without new yarn in the house this past week, I had to resort to a silly, but very cute hat pattern that I discovered on Knitty over the Christmas break. The Fish Hat in the Winter 2008 issue looked like a good gift for my nephew for when the family goes on their annual early spring fishing trip in Northern MN. A knit hat in spring? If you live in MN, you know that's not just a possibility, but a probability. Apparently, I'm not the only one who thought this would be a fun knit. When I posted it on my Ravelry site, I noticed that it is the most active pattern on the site with over 500 knitters making this same pattern. Looking around at some of the finished fishies, I thought the cutest ones were here, here, here, and here.

Back at the yarn store...I ended up getting enough yarn for two sweaters. Having just finished my Rambling Rows cardigan, I wasn't sure if I wanted to do another all-garter-stitch design, but I did cast-on another Cottage Creations pattern, Kyler's Kardigan, and got yarn for Dolce Handknits Amherst cardigan--both of which are done in garter stitch. Maybe I needed a change from cables?

I had some very specific yarn choices in mind for both of these sweaters, and then I compromised and bought what was actually available. For the "kardigan" I went with an organic wool from Plymouth--Earth Homestead. The color is Homestead Grey, but I would call it taupe. Made in Peru, a 100gram skein was only $7. No one at the shop had used it yet, but it made a nice swatch. The hardest pattern to match up with yarn was the Amherst. I had been picturing a nice spring green, but did not want to go all cotton. A garter stitch cotton sweater would stretch and grow to ugly proportions. I ended up going with the old reliable Reynolds' Lite-Lopi in a light green heather.

It was fun to look at all the beautiful new spring yarns that have come in. I will have to browse through some of my patterns and go back soon. I did have one observation from my most recent LYS experience--It's a good idea to own your own ball winder. I generally wind my own yarn hanks, but for some reason, I felt a little lazy yesterday and had the shop do it for me. And then I remembered why I usually do it myself. I am not trying to get on this woman's case--she was winding yarn as fast as she could to keep up with what people were buying that afternoon, but check this out. This is the skein that they wound for me at the shop next to the skein that I re-wound it at home. Seriously, you could hit a homerun with the skein on the right, and what do you think is happening to that yarn if it ends up in a bin for a few months before it gets knit? Eventually, that stressed out yarn is going to return to its orginal state and you can imagine what that could do to the gauge of a finished sweater. Yarn hanks look beautiful and they must be a money saver for those who manufacture yarn, but I'm sure shop owners wish that skeins were the norm.