Saturday, November 18, 2006

Magic Yarn

In the realm of the Deep V Argyle vest class, I have just set the steeks for my arm holes. I am slowly but surely working my way up the vest as it is now getting smaller and smaller every 4 rows. Here is a nice pretty shot of my v-neck steek with its charming gaping mouth at the bottom*.

We are supposed to have all the knitting done in time for our last class in 2 weeks. In that class we will connect the shoulders, cut the steeks and start picking up for the neck and arm bands. The problem is, when I bought my yarn, I bought enough for the size 34 I was going to be making. However, because of my gauge, I am actually making a size 38. And a bit more knitting makes for a bit more yarn. Where it stands today, I only have a 1/2 ball left of the 4 balls of Scarlett I originally purchased. And clearly 1/2 a ball is not enough to finish the body of the vest, pick up stitches and knit 2 inch neck and arm bands. This means I needed to get my hands on another ball. But guess what? I bought this yarn from an online shop based in Australia.

The idea of placing another international order for a $5 ball of yarn seemed mildly silly. Talk about the shipping not compensating for the cost savings of the yarn! So, I had resolved myself to purchasing one additional ball locally, figuring that I could use it for the bands only and hoping it would hide differences between the dye lots.

Then something miraculous happened...

In a truly "a-ha" moment (any one else really miss A-Ha from the Take on Me era?), I thought, just for ducks, I'm going to check the dye lot of the yarn in town. So on a recent excursion to Lori's in Alpine, I did just that. And you know what? IT FREAKING MATCHES!! This is why, I am now calling this yarn my Magic Yarn. What is the chance that a yarn produced in New Zealand and ordered from Australia, would match the dye lot of the same yarn sold in a San Diego suburb? Truly amazing, I say.

*Please don't worry about the puckering of my fair isle. I am still new at this, but I can assure you there is plenty of give in my fabric and it should block out nicely.

5 comments:

Theresa said...

Amazing! Have a great time at Wine Steals!

mle said...

Wow!! You're one lucky gal! Hey, what's that you have in the background of your magic yarn? it looks pretty whatever it is!

Unknown said...

That's pretty fricken cool!
I'm sorry I missed the gathering at Wine Steals :( I didn't get out of work until 4 and by then I was exausted. I forgot how busy it is right before Thanksgving! Hope you all had fun!

Anonymous said...

ohmyGOD that is freaking AMAZING!!

Jeanette said...

Excellent! Who would have thought?