not what I planned

I got myself all psyched to start on the Navajo plying thing last night. I've been wanting to learn it ever since I saw what you can do with it at Lynne Vogel's Color in Spinning class, and now that it basically stands between me and the glorious BFL I dyed, I have to figure it out. At the end of the day yesterday, it was all I could think about. I couldn't wait to start, so right before I left work, I looked up a tutorial on it and printed it out. Then I cheerfully went home, leaving the printout on the printer. :P
It's not like I don't have a printer at home, but in the end I reskeined some sock yarn and messed around until almost dinner time, which left not enough time for spinning before dinner, and after dinner I knit about two rows and crashed. I've mysteriously changed back into a morning person since this whole steroid adventure, which is really great except for the undeniable sleepiness starting around 9:30 pm.
Anyway, here's what I'm working on.


It's going to be one of the kits. I tried to start it on World Wide Knit in Public Day, but I was using those awful circular needles with the immensely long tapering points, and it was just a misery. I decided to give it one more try on 14" straight needles, and it's much better. I love these needles. They're aluminum, so they're very smooth, and they're purple, and they have very short points. I wasn't sure I'd be able to get the whole thing onto straight needles, but I managed to stuff it on there.


It's a pleasure to knit, and I like how it's coming out. When I was swatching, I tried some little lace effects, but they just ended up looking like mistakes, so I'm going with straight garter stitch, at least for the boucle yarns.
As nice as this is, though, I'm really in the mood for some color right now. Specifically, I'd rather be knitting (or crocheting) this.


It just came. The colors did look a bit more sophisticated on the internet, but still, it calls to me whenever I walk by. "Cara," it says. "Your life is boring! You fall asleep at 9:30 at night! You need me! Come over here! Knit me!!!" I believe it's using "knit" in the generic sense of "do yarn craft with me," especially since I certainly don't have the needles that would be required to make, say, a really awesome shawl out of this. That's what irritates me about knitting: I like making things with the rows going lengthwise. In crochet, you don't need some extra special stick for that, you just use the same hook you'd use for everything else. But somehow with knitting you need some $10 piece of equipment, and then it's probably the wrong size, so you should really buy another one in the right size, and you probably already have one in the size you want except it's a really crappy one because you're a cheapskate and bought the $20 plastic circular needle set, only to discover that it completely sucks except the smallest one... plus they come in all different lengths, but which length do you want? You don't know. And what you should probably do is just spring for the interchangeable set with all the needles and the different cables so you never have this problem again (hah!) but who wants to spend $60+ on a bunch of boring knitting needles? They are not colorful or soft.
Oh wait, that's all just me.
Back to the yarn, it's British Mohair Silk & Mohair Boucle. It's 54% mohair, 23% silk, and 18% wool. The color is Tequila Sunset, and I got it at Discontinued Brand Name Yarn for $15 a (200g) skein! Ok, we all know I've had some "you get what you pay for" experiences lately, but the fact that I got this glorious yarn for less than 40% of the retail price makes me love it all the more.
Of course, despite not having time to work with the yarn I have, I've also fallen in love with a certain pattern from Exquisite Little Knits. It's a very airy lace scarf/wrap. It would be my first lace pattern, but it's extremely simple. It's just gorgeous, and I've been thinking about it for a while. It requires two balls of Rowan Kidsilk Haze, which, aside from going through my stash and finding nothing suitable, didn't mean much to me until yesterday I actually saw some at Yarn Expressions. Turns out Rowan Kidsilk Haze is the super soft yarn that I pet and drool over every time I go there! I totally would have bought it, but none of the colors on display really did it for me. I kept looking at them and petting them, but really nothing jumped up and said, "I am the yarn for you! I must become that gorgeous scarf!" Kind of disappointing. Now that I know what yarn it is, I want it all the more. Maybe they'll get some more colors in the fall yarn shipment. It's definitely a treat yarn, but I've been working hard--I deserve a treat!