Many of you may remember the pact I made with myself (the one where I would make 5 projects from my stash before I bought any new yarn.) Well, with the completion of Emma's socks I reached my goal. I noticed while digging through my stash, that I have a lot of wool. A lot of really nice wool. Leftovers from one fair isle project or another. I decided to make a vest pattern I had found in Interweave Knits with my find. It is a project I had kept my eye on for quite sometime, however I had to buy a skein of yarn before I could start it. So, onward I went with the socks. Finally, the socks were done and it was time to start the vest. I have never been a fan of gauge swatches. Therefore I didn't do one. Well, after 2 hours of knitting a k1, p1 rib I realized that my gauge was way off. I was supposed to be 28 stitches/4 inches and I was at 20 stitches/ 4 inches. Makes for a very large waist line. The amazing part was I was already knitting on a size 3 needle! I knew immediately the yarn I had chosen was absolutely not going to work for this vest. Enter exhibit A: I had picked up Knitting Classic Style at Sam's last week. I was immediately struck by the number of fair isle projects in the book. I love color work and haven't done any in at least 18 months. Now, I do believe my pact was not to buy yarn, it said nothing of buying knitting books. I forged on. I browsed through the patterns in the book and settled on the Ski Jacket. It is a wool cardigan made mostly in one color with a fair isle yolk. I cast on and immediately and did a gauge swatch. HA. Guess what? Correct gauge the very first time! WOW. Onward I knit. Here is a very early picture of the sweater with the pattern.
Knitting on, I realized that now I did not have enough yarn from my stash and that I would be required to make yet another yarn purchase. Not just 1 skein but 3. My dear husband is fond of saying, that my ideas always cost him money. I am beginning to see the truth in that. Here I had a grand plan of using my stash and getting an awesome new vest in the process, and now I have the potential for having more leftovers. Contemplating this I am beginning to see a pattern. This is exactly how many of my brilliant ideas start. They transform over time to become something completely different from my initial concept. Whether the idea is a quilt, a vest or the plan for the day. Most of the time I am happy with the end result. Although I'll admit quite often I am not, and on I move to my next brilliant idea. I'll have to let you know if this is one of those times.
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