Stash Enhancement

I really hate having a true stash (a bunch of odd balls of yarn lying around that I may or may not use but just bought because “oooh, shiny!”) but I love combined shipping rules! And I love WEBS discounts when you buy more yarn! So, what I’m trying to say is, I bought a lot of new yarn, and clearly, I’m trying to justify the purchases. And lucky me, it all came on the same day last week.

This is Green Mountain Spinnery’s Alpaca Elegance in Cocoa purchased from WEBS. It’s a little bit darker brown than in the photo above (I hit the early morning light a little too early this morning) and it’s destined to become a cabled cardigan hoodie of some sort (and no, not the Central Park Hoodie). I haven’t swatched this up yet but it feels so soft and woolly (it’s 50% alpaca, 50% fine wool-yum!) in the skein.

This is an awful photo of a cone of Brown Sheep Top of the Lamb Sport in Charcoal, slated to become a modified Gathered Pullover from the Winter 2007 Interweave (scroll to the bottom for a photo of the sweater). I wasn’t sure what to think of the sweater when I saw it in the magazine — doesn’t the model look miserable? But after seeing a handful of really beautiful FOs, I’m convinced that I must make this. And really, the whole thing was only $18.50 for a 1lb cone (purchased from Lorien Alpacas) — that’s 1400 yards! I will say, their cart doesn’t seem to necessarily reflect what’s in stock (both my yarn purchases were backordered) but they emailed me right away to let me know and then shipped my order incredibly fast when it came in (only two days to get across the country), so I can definitely recommend them! I’m hoping to change the hem of the sweater up a bit — I don’t really love the roll, but I’m not sure how I’m going to change it (turned hem? ribbing?), and I’m definitely going to drop the cable down so the widest part hits just under the bust.

Last up is Rowan 4 Ply Soft in clover purchased from WEBS. I’m really excited to knit a whole sweater out of this gorgeous stuff! It’s a fingering weight 100% merino with pretty good yardage (191 yards/skein) and I haven’t quite decided what it’s going to become.

Technically, there’s one more recent arrival lurking out there somewhere that’s already been cast on for my new project — more on that tomorrow!