Thursday, October 15, 2009

still cold...

As I still haven't gotten around to sewing up my purple sweater, I naturally cast on another one -- after all, I'm still cold! I had one more sweater quantity of Northampton in the stash, this time in Ocean Heather, and I was sufficiently impatient and cold that rather than take the time to do my own math and knit an original sweater, I grabbed for another pattern, this time the Olive Branch Yoga Hoodie from Valley Yarns.

I do like Webs in general, and the Valley Yarns products in particular. I'm a Smith grad (class of '06!), so for four lovely years Webs was my LYS, and even though I now live in Wisconsin, I still think of Webs as a bit of a spiritual home. They were always very kind to and tolerant of students with lots of yarn lust and not much money, or at least they were to me. I spent plenty of happy hours browsing around the store and warehouse during the less busy times of the semester. I also scored my copy of Tudor Roses there before I'd even heard of Alice Starmore.

Northampton is such a wonderful yarn. Northampton was a lovely crunchy place to live, and having its namesake be such a practical 100% wool just feels so fitting. I do wish it came in more colors, but the 100g skeins and the price are excellent. Much as I love the endless colors of Cascade 220, I find Northampton to be springier and more elastic and generally nicer to work with, not to mention how much I appreciate not having to ball the yarn myself. Hanks of Cascade 220 are pretty, but don't have the same instant gratification.

Anyhow, I've already made it 80% of the way through the sleeves; top-down sweater construction is a wonderful thing and this one is just cruising along! There's almost no sewing up to do, but I expect this sweater will stall when it comes to installing the zipper. It's always something, with me.

Still, who knows how many other wonderful sweaters will get within spitting distance of completion before I get warm?
~Phosphorelated

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