T-4!!!

Good Morning Everyone!

In case you haven't heard, it's LOCAL YARN STORE DAY ON SATURDAY!!! Carrie has kept me very busy organizing and posting all the fun things we will be doing to celebrate. I will be offering special pricing for one of the featured LYS day patterns, Double Win Mosaic Scarf. When I saw the pattern, I instantly thought of The Exotic by Woolerton Estates. It is a lovely blend of alpaca, linen and silk, the fabric it creates lends itself perfectly to this pattern. If you've yet to try Mosaic knitting, or even if you have, I think this design is simply stunning, an ideal project to work on while it tries to warm up. I have a lovely selection of colors available, they are paired up, only as a suggestion. The pattern requires 2 Main color and 1 Contrast color, the LYS day pricing will be $85, a nice savings from the suggested retail of $125. I will also be offering 20% off the other kits in the shop with the exception of the KOIGU LYS sock kits (I'm so excited for you to see them).

I finished knitting my 4th Il Favorito Grande by Isabell Kraemer, it's in Lang's Cloud. OMG IS IT SOFT AND COZY!! I snuggled into it last night after taking it off the blocking mats, I am in love with it. It is by far the happiest and cheeriest sweater I own, I love the colors. The first thing I thought of was, I look like the stylish version of Where's Waldo? And guess what, the temperature is cooperating! The wind is blowing just enough and the sun has decided never to come out just so I can wear that damn sweater as planned. Winter boots are still by the door...

So, with 2 sweaters finished, my lovely Niche and now Il Favorito, I was facing the dilemma of what to knit next. There's much strategy involved as you know, ideally, I'd like a new sweater for the summer (it is still 6 weeks away lol). It's worth mentioning, while I was winding the 40 skeins of The Exotic I just couldn't help myself from snagging (6) skeins for myself. There were (2) gorgeous speckled skeins that I envisioned for the body of a sweater, it would be the perfect backdrop for colorwork. I'm having trouble deciding what to use for the colorwork, I have (3) colors I'm considering. Carrie and I are both leaning toward a Robin's Egg blue linen from my stash. I'm knitting Caitlin Hunter's Misurina https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/misurina it's been on my list for awhile (I love her patterns). You won't be surprised to know that selecting a CC is the least of my issues. I had to do some serious math, my gauge was way off. Thankful for Carol Feller's handy little gauge conversion equation. Long story short, I need to knit the 52" sweater to accomodate me liking the fabric at 6 sts/inch versus the 5 sts/inch the pattern calls for. Crazy, I know, but the math doesn't lie... The other (3) skeins are either going to be used to knit a sweater that is yet to be published called Flower Child (the bobbles scare me a bit) or I may pair it with Artesia and knit a Vanilla Fluff. Decisions, decision, decisions...this is my world.

We did have a lovely time meeting this past Saturday for KAL, we forgot to take a picture!! So many beautiful Elise pullovers both finished and still on the needles. We are such a talented group!! We are trying to decide what the next project should be. I love either finding a new yarn to knit with or some kind of interesting technique. Speaking of new technique, at this year's Spring Retreat, we will be learning how to do Fission Knitting. The dates for the Retreat are May 17th & 18th at Susan's Bed & Breakfast in Alburgh. She and Carrie were discussing the details, there is room for (3) to stay overnight, it's $100/night. I'm waiting to get the cost of the food and figure out the supplies etc....I promise to have the information soon.

We will be meeting tomorrow evening, Wednesday 6-7:30 for Stitch and Bitch, I hope you can join in the fun. Make it a great day and I'll see you soon!

Katy