Saturday, August 12, 2006

Perfect present

Yesterday I received my first knitblogging-related package: my prize for posting the 300th comment to Rose's blog! A skein of Trekking 104 and a pretty little card!

I'm very excited because... I love this color! She was exactly right that the colors here are just perfect for me. (Look at all those blues! I'm swimming in blue happiness!) What she probably didn't know is that I already have a skein of that same Trekking yarn. Which just goes to show her good judgment in helping me to have more!

The presence of two skeins of Trekking leaves me with a conundrum: do I make two pairs of socks? Or do I make something else, like a shawl with variegated blues? I was initially planning to make a pair of Jaywalkers with this yarn. And, after about a day, the corner of my brain that carries on an ongoing thought-process about yarn and knitting has decided that I probably won't go for a shawl. It just feels like a sock yarn to me, for some reason. In fact, it's feeling like becoming a sock out of Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road, though I haven't picked which pattern yet. (I'd love to, but then I might cast on, and really, I must resist until after Wednesday. And until after I have another FO.)

This is the joy (one of them, at least) of knitting: deciding what to knit with all the gorgeous yarn one has in one's stash (or that could be added to the stash; let's be honest here). I have a list of projects I'd like to make, and very obviously too little time in which to make them. I'm thinking (in that same knitting-related corner of the brain) about how I decide what to knit next, and I wonder: how do you decide? Gut? Intuition? Desire? Impulse? A long list of possible projects? The promise of a new technique? A to-die-for yarn that just calls out to you? A color? A season? A gift?

7 comments:

Sheepish Annie said...

For me it's that biiiiiig stack of knitting magazines with all the newest "looks." I rarely throw them away and am always skimming back through them for the perfect what-ever-it-is that I didn't get to last year but just have to knit.

Unknown said...

I saw that Trekking over at her house and tried to steal it. :) Just know that she had to defend your prize.

Anonymous said...

I'm really glad you like the yarn. Whatever you choose to do with it (with either skein) will be great.

And Stariel really did try to steal it. I had to grab it out of her hands. So you'd better treasure the yarn, ok? :)

Anonymous said...

You know, I always start with the yarn and then find a pattern. I swatch a lot! I recommend that you start one sock with each ball of yarn and knit two socks simultaneously so you can avoid second sock syndrome. Trekking is so much fun to knit with, I predict you'll want to continue and make another pair when the first are done. I have some of that color too and it's great! Enjoy!

Zarzuela said...

You could do something really silly and knit matching socks for you and your hubby! (Something I still have to get to for me and my boy. Yes we are dorky. ;)) As for projects, all of the above seem to have happened for me at one time or another!

Jessica
http://zarzuelaknitsandcrochets.com/blog

Anonymous said...

I love trekking yarn, I'm rather partial to making socks with them and the texture of the yarn seems not super soft for a shawl I'd want draped around my shoulders.

I have a list of projects I want to do that I keep on hand at all times and add or edit it as I go. It's tough, there's so much I want to knit but so little time!

Anonymous said...

Congrats on finishing your first exam! It must feel like a relief.

The coned yarn from WEBS is really crunchy, but after I swatched it for my sweater I washed it and found that it did soften some. However, it was still rather wooly and scratchy so I don't think it would be well suited for Cozy. I think its good yarn for an outerwear kind of sweater but for a shawl, it would be too "wooly" if you know what I mean.