Yesterday such a lovely package was waiting for me on the kitchen table, the package from Emily in Chicago!

I'd won her charity socks pattern promotion :) such a wonderful surprise at the time. Seasing the opportunity she asked me if there was anything else that i wanted to get to add to the package to make it worth while (I do all of my yarn shopping via the US and the internet now - gotta love technology!).

Being that Em works at Lorna's Laces i jumped at the chance to get som LL's Edgewater yarn. Here is what arrived for me yesterday... just in time for the Easter long weekend!



Actually the Cables & Aran book is mine but everything else was in the package. I've ordered the Lace & Eyelets book from Amazon, which if it hasnt turned up today will probably arrive sometime next week after Easter.

The Edgewater yarn is the same colourway that Emily used for her Cardigan and I fell in love with it when i saw how it came out! I got it in Lion & Lamb the Silk and Merino blend, it is exeptionally lovely very smooth but squishy at the same time. I would never have been able to afford this yarn at its retail price, there's just over $60 worth of silk here! Some peopel have made sweaters out of this stuff... YIKES!

To be honest i havent quite decided what turn the Edgewater into.... its so nice that i want it close to my skin, so i was thinking some handwarmers... maybe the mermaid ones if i have enough yardage, or a pair of fetching with a neckwarmer to match, but then i wonder how well the silk would hold up around a high wear area like the hands. Some more thought might have to go into this :)

Also part of the yarny goodness is this Green Growth yarn, that was part of the experimental dye phase before the line was officially released by Lorna's.

As you can see its slightly varigated and carries a few shades of a Sage Green colour. From memory I think its 100% merino wool... its very soft and smooshy. I think this would make a really nice Koolhass :) with plenty left over for a matching neckwarmer or a pair of fetching :)

To top of a really great week my Cosmic Dawn Haindmaiden Sea Silk yarn arrived the day before:



oooh its also so nice! Its laceweight so its quite thin but the seacell fibre just gives it that something extra, and the silk means that its shiny and smooth as well. The colours are just vivacious! The bright Red, the Royal blue and the deep green just POP, with the muted purple and blacky/grey in between, i cant wait to see how its going to knit up. This has been earmarked as a Montego Bay Scarf (I was inspired by Team Knits version [ravelry link] in this yarn in the Orgin colourway)

But right now its more important to get onto the ISE6 scarf knitting, like I said yesterday I plan to go into Spotlight tonight after work - its late night shopping tonight before the public holiday tomorrow. I know exactly what i want to get, lets hope that they actually have it. Otherwise its gonna be a trip into the city... which wont be fun this close to easter!

As I wont be deleriously bored at work I wont be posting until after the Easter holidays, so have a good one people and stay safe on the roads.

I'm still dutifully plugging away at the Corisca sweater and i'm really pleased with how its coming up.

I love love love this colour!



The top half above is done up to the armpits, and i'm now working on the sleeves.

The picture below gives you an idea of how the crossover bit looks, although the colour here is a little bit pinky, it was very hot and bright outside when these were snapped:



In the pattern the sleeves are worked from the bottom up, with increases either side of the cable and again at the start and end of the row. I was using the two circ's method rather than DPN's (cos i dont have any of the right size).

I dont really like how my increases have come up - i used the KF&B increase otherwise known as the bar increase. I think the fact that I wasnt quite used to using the two circs method of knitting in the round affected how these early increases came up.

its also a little snug around my wrists and forearm, even though i did add four stitches to the recommended number to cast on.



here is a close up of the cable with some stuffing in it to represent an arm :) Loving this Braided cable pattern too, it looks very cool :)



looking back over these pictures, it's not as evident as it is in real life how amaturish the sleeves look. In person they just scream hand knit by someone who's never completed a sweater before. Not that anyone but me is going to notice.... its the age old knitters problem isnt it, as long as I know its like that its going to bug the hell out of me. Especially when i know this is something that i'm going to really want to love and wear all the time.

and the back increases:



For the 2nd sleeve, i've decided to work from the armpit down. I've got a provisional cast on of the same number of stitches that i ended up with on the first sleeve and i'm going to k2tog where the increases would have been. My k2tog is much better looking than my M1 sitches.

I also think that i might have to stop decreasing a little sooner so that i have more stitches for around my wrists and forearm.

If that looks a lot better i'm gonna have to rip out this first sleeve and do it again from the top down.... yeah looking forward to that - NOT :(

On some other news I got my International Scarf Exchange 6 buddie details and I can now start looking for some yarn. I think I might tackle the My So Called Scarf pattern for my buddie, in a varigated purple thick n thin yarn i saw at spotlight the other week. Her Fav colour is purple.

Its all very exciting :)

RIP Missy
2003 - March 14 2007

Coming along nicely with my corsica. I've finished the waist section and have moved onto the chest section.



stupid me misread the instructions for the crossover section and i had to rip it back and start again, but i think i'm on track now.

More yarn purchase news, Emily has gotten me two skeins of Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb in the Edgewater colourway. She thinks i'll be the first person in Oz to get my hands on the new colourway - how crazy exciting is that! .... for knitters of course :) the Hubby would look at me strangley and say "so"?

sigh

and then for some reason, i find myself at Ebay agonising about a Handmaiden Sea Silk colour.... do i go with Origin (which is on the handmaiden website so has to be a legit colour) or something funky looking called Cosmic Dawn (which is not listed on the handmaiden website) - ACH!!
As i floated outside of my body i realised that it had gone and clicked on the buy it now button.

Hang on when did it do that... did i tell it to do that.... crap... oh well its done now

mwahahahah