Trying to Cast On

Sooo…

That cowl?  It’s lovely and all, but it doesn’t fit the way I wanted it to.  So, I’ve done some reworking, and have a new chart.  The old chart ought to be perfect for sport-weight yarn.  This new chart should make the DK yarn produce a cowl I like.  That’s underway — with a questionable amount of yarn left from the first one.

Meanwhile, I’ve been planning to knit Echo Flower along with the rest of you folks.  If I’m going to make enough headway for it to look like the end is in sight it before it’s time to start Evenstar, I’d best get my butt in gear.

Today, I thought I had finally chosen the stash yarn I think I’m going to use.  I can’t bring myself to use the new silk — because Echo Flower only takes 800 yards.  I can’t bring myself to just waste 400 yards of silk.  So, I was thinking of using my Blue Moon Fiber Arts Bambu.

Here’s my swatch.

It took awhile, but I managed to get the nupps to work despite the very splitty nature of this yarn.  But in the end, I’m not impressed, actually.  I don’t particularly like the way the nupps come out in this yarn.  I suppose I could substitute beads for nupps.. and then the lovely shimmer of this yarn would do what I wanted for the Echo Flower, even if it doesn’t make pretty nupps.  But you know, this yarn just isn’t doing it for me for this design.    Now I’m back to the hunting for Echo yarn, and trying to figure out what to do with THIS yarn. (I may just up and … sell it! – 800 lovely yards of bambu!)

In the mean time, I think I’ll call Miss Babs to see if there’s another 500 yards of that silk lying around somewhere.  I’d love to use it for Evenstar!

Oh… and one more thing!

We’re actively collecting now for the Stealth Award to our Amazing Blog Mistress.  Since I didn’t share my pay pal address until I was sure we’d have enough for a really nice gift, there are a few people who’ve not had a chance to fill their original pledges.  That means that there’s still time for a few more donations to slip in to put that gift certificate over the top.  After all the work she does in the background to keep  the blog  running (not to mention just plain paying for the server space), I think she deserves a massive bonus.  Thanks so quite a few of you, she’ll have a nice gift.  But if you’ve been dithering, or now realize that you’ve got $5.00 or $10.00 to spare… if you either send it by pay pal to needledncr AT comcast DOT net, or comment seeking my address for other forms of payment, I’ll add it to the pot.

Thanks again to all who have already generously donated!