WIP Wednesday and a Favorite Thing

This week, amongst other things, I've been prepping for a fiber adventure.  I'll be away from the blog for a few days longer than usual (I try to post at least once every week), but when I come back I should have some new yarn shops to share here and a run-down of my trip to a very snowy and knit-friendly place!  

I've got lots of knitting to work on while away, including my usual scarves, a new top-down cardigan, and a mohair shrug.  

The cardigan, in natural beige heather Cascade 220, is based mainly on a traditional stitch pattern I have been experimenting with all month.  It's a simple, pretty lace stitch combined with some other textures for a warm sweater I really need for this winter weather.  The cast on is shown in the first photo at the top of this post.

After I swatched and decided on the stitch patterns I scrapped the earlier red yarn, shown below, as it was not right for the texture I am using now.  I'll save that for another project.

The shrug WIP is a tweaked version of the two I knit in 2010.  I love the Louet Euroflax linen one I made last summer, but was less than totally thrilled with the Malabrigo Worsted version, and I'm now giving mohair a try before deciding which to write up as a pattern first.  

At present, I am knitting with the charcoal grey Elann Super Kydd mohair blend yarn I frogged from an earlier pullover.  I loved the pullover (and definitely plan a pattern project down the road), but this yarn was just too scratchy for me to wear next-to-skin, so I thought I'd use it to experiment with for this outer layer project instead.  

Obviously, I've not progressed very far yet, but hope to get a lot done during the trip.   

Alright now, the following is not a paid endorsement, LOL, just stuff I find good enough to share here as a 'Favorite Thing'.  

Although I don't use a lot of cosmetics or beauty products, when I do, I want to know I'm getting my money's worth and one company has been a tremendous help with this. 

Paula Begoun, aka the "Cosmetics Cop," had such resounding success from her books Don't Go To The Cosmetics Counter Without Me (now in it's 8th edition) and The Original Beauty Bible, that she founded two websites: Paula'sChoice.com, and Beautypedia.com, a product website and review website, respectively.  

Beautypedia experts analyze nearly every cosmetic and beauty product, from most major companies, available in the US.   Searching the database of professionally lab-tested products has saved me a ton of money over the years, by allowing me to read the professional reviews of the real product without the marketing hype.

I was happy to see that from now until the end of February, the entire Beautypedia database of thousands of product reviews is free to search (normally it costs $15-25 a year), so have fun.

I'll be back after this trip with lots of photos of my yarnie adventure and, hopefully, more FO's.  Until then, peace, blessings and happy knitting!

The Need For Tweed

For some reason, I seem to be drawn to rustic yarns a lot lately.  I'm not sure if it's due to my penchant for texture, or perhaps the pleasing combination of subtly blended color.  Whatever the reason, it seems to be constantly catching my eye.

I recently began some new pattern-related projects, one using Cascade 220 Heathers bought at a recently-reviewed yarn shop, and I love this nice, smooth, basic workhorse yarn for lots of projects.  But as respectable and extremely useful as it is, it seems a little tame to me.  My fingers revel in knitting with yarn that has a more textural hand, or 'feel' to it - fluffy mohair, smooth alpaca, springy wool and nubby tweed.  

I am loving working with Debbie Bliss Donegal Aran Tweed for another project.  Debbie Bliss does a great job of creating colorways, with the tweedy nepps in one color being bits of other base colors, allowing easy coordination if using multiple colors in one project.  And the texture of this yarn is gorgeous - it has a crunchy, earthy feel, spun with just a hint of thick-thin variation, and a matte, handcrafted look. 

Donegal Aran Tweed is not a soft yarn (Debbie Bliss' Donegal Luxury Tweed fills that niche), but the natural roughness of the surface is pleasing, giving a lot of grab and snugging the knitted stitches together nicely. I am using garter stitch for this project which seems ideal for this yarn. 

I am not crazy about how some colors have a lot of 'tweediness' and high quantity of nepps, while other colors seem low-contrast and bland by comparison.  Or that one of the colors had a slight, but distinct, difference in gauge.

I also had one or two underspun spots that pulled apart when I tugged too hard on a stitch, although Donegal Tweed is very easy to wet-splice the ends back together. I've also noticed that in 5 balls of this yarn, I've not encountered a single knot. 

This 100% wool yarn has been used by knitters for just about every kind of project, including hats and cowls, but I think it would be too scratchy for next-to-skin wear for me, especially around the face.  I would; however, love to make a warm cardigan or jacket in this yarn.  Perhaps something like this A-Line jacket from Drops/ Garnstudio,

or Interweave Knits' Central Park Hoodie.

I'll keep you posted on my current project as soon as I am able to.  For now, I still feel the need, the need for tweed....