Okay, you know the tune. Ready?

One of these skeins is from the wrong dyelot,
Even though they are not s’posed to be.
Can you guess which skein is from the wrong dyelot?
Just click on the picture and see!

Let’s play! Here’s how it works. Look at the closeup, and see if you can guess which skein was bought seperately from the rest. Click the pic, and see if your guess matches the skein with the label face-up. (These pics were taken at different angles, some with sunlight, some with flash. Just to make it fair to the yarn.)

Click here if you want a better look before you guess.

How did you do? Want to try again? Here you go!

Again, click here for a bigger view of the image.

Doing well? Here’s the last one:

Here’s the bigger version.

Well, that was fun. Wasn’t that fun? I tried very hard to capture the shade difference on film, but it was a little tough. They are definitely different, though (at this very moment the offending skein is sitting in the sun with its cousins on the table to my left, leering at me with its slightly different shade of sage) so we will be exchanging the yarn. A mismatched skein is not worthy of all the effort that goes into a handmade sweater. I mean, the last thing you want is for someone to come up to you and – instead of complimenting your creation – mention that the left sleeve is really more of a duck-egg than a sage green. (It’s all about the nuances.)
Fortunately, the answer here is simple. I’m going to go to Walmart, exchange the sage for some more grey heather (I ran out last night – I’m hoping that the heather will help conceal any discrepancies between the new yarn and my WIP made with last year’s purchase. Whatever.) after which I will duck into Michael’s for another skein of their sage. Voila!

Oh, and hey. You know you played the game. Tell us how you did!

Ahh, that’s better. Although Max and Charlie are still inexplicably upset by the sound of my fingers on the aluminum (can someone recommend a material inaudible to small children?) apparently the fact that there’s only one utensil has gained me some mercy. May I present: ‘Since Yesterday, in Still Life.’

That’s right, I’ve managed not-one-but-two of these . . . sleeve-like . . . sleeve-shaped . . . short-sleevy . . . hmm, what could it be? Must wait and see… but after all the knitting, I felt like I was flying when I got my hook back in my hands. I’m sure that part of it is that I have the knitting experience of a crafty ten-year-old, but it is so slooooow. Yes, I’m sure my speed will pick up with practice. Some people really zoom on their needles. (Like Eunny! Of course, she is a knitting genius/deity.) But, unless you’re like Eunny (and please, God, if you’re sending me a present this year, can you make me like Eunny?) it seems to be a lot of work for slow progress. If only the results weren’t so darn appealing, I could drop it. Oh well.
Anyway, said sleeve-like objects above were made using some stashed Simply Soft in Grey Heather (I’m a sucker for a heathered yarn) that I had left over. The first time I touched this yarn I knew that it wanted to be ribbing, and now it is! A lot of beautiful, beautiful ribbing. (Live the dream, yarn!) I love crocheted ribbing, personally. I think it’s one of the most visually appealing textures you can create with a hook. See? Look at the lovely shadows. Mmmm.

And, following up on my resolution to work more with the Simply Soft, I purchased enough in Sage and a delicious Plum Wine to make two somethings for myself.

At Walmart the Sage was all but cleared out (I wonder why), only one lonely skein languishing in the bin. I grabbed the other three at Michael’s. It cost more there, but when I got home I noticed that the skeins from Michael’s had one extra ounce apiece. Hmm, strange. Still, they’re some lovely colors, and I can’t wait to do something with them.

Some of you may have been wondering (mmmm, probably not, but humor me) whether I was serious when I said I was going to cast on for the Quinn Cabled Bag asap. Well, I did. And I’ve made some progress. Not much progress, but apparently the sound of my fingers closing around an aluminum needle – while inaudible to adults – causes my children to cry and fuss in unbearable distress unless they are both in deep sleep or distributed about my person. So, in the past two weeks, this is what I have accomplished in the yarny arena:

I was able to sucessfully execute a provisional cast-on, using this tutorial from Knitty. Unfortunately, I could not seem to work neatly off of it. After a few attempts I snarled some unpleasant things at the whole mess, just did a normal cast-on and started knitting. I don’t care if I have a seam there.
It was while I was knitting this (lovely) band of cable that I realized that this is only my second project ever with Caron Simply Soft. I should really work with it more often – it is pleasantly smooth, a nice light worsted weight, extremely cheap and accessible, and of course quite soft. Unlike the LB Wool-ease I used to make the cabled shrug (which was poofy and fuzzy enough to conceal some irregularities in my stitches), the Simply Soft is a smooth, sleek, shiny strand that really shows the quality of the work. (Note that I am not claiming here that it is HIGH quality work. I didn’t make any mistakes, but you can really see when the stitches are irregular.)
The next step is to pick up 144 stitches around the long edge and work the bottom of the bag on circular needles. But, um, I don’t have any circular needles. Why does knitting require so many different and different sorts of needles? I was originally planning to work it flat (since I didn’t graft the ends of the top band together, anyway) but…that’s quite a few stitches to work on even 14″ straights. Fortunately (coincidentally, haha) I’m planning on placing a good solid Knitpicks order at the end of the month to hold me over during the house-buying belt-tightening period and I’ve decided to invest in a set of Options. Mmm, yummy. I’ve already got one set of dpns from them, and I absolutely love the feel of them. Nice and solid-feeling, very smooth (and shiny!) with a nice sharp tip. Very pleasant to work with. The circulars match, and with all the good things I’ve heard about the Options set, I’m fairly confident that it will be a good investment.

However, until then the Quinn bag needs to be put away. And you know what that means, right? New project!