Mohair from New Zealand!

Emily returned from New Zealand with two luscious hanks of mohair yarn for me! It's really soft and so pretty -- the color ranges from dark to light gray, which I love. I can't wait to see how it knits up! I'm thinking it would make a great lacy scarf or shawl.

Thanks so much Emma!

Blanket in progress

The baby blanket is still around 24" square. Progress is slow these days due to the fact that each round is now 96" long! And I'm not a very fast knitter. And sometimes it's just too darn hot to knit.


The center is stockinette, then I did some weird thing that was supposed to be moss stitch but wasn't, then there is some seed stitch. The outermost stitch is "embossed diamonds" from the Vogue Knitting Ultimate Knitting Book. Next I'm planning to do the "King Charles brocade" stitch from the same book.

Recent acquisitions, what I'm working on

While in Turkey I did a little online yarn shopping as well as the aforementioned bazaar yarn shopping. Jannette's Rare Yarns had an amazing sale going on at the time, and I couldn't resist purchasing a 10-skein bag of Debbie Bliss Aran Tweed in off-white flecked with bright blue, lemon, and black. Methinks it will make lovely cabled scarves and hats or something like that. (Maybe a cabled sweater for my little niece? It is machine washable...) By the way, Jannette's Rare Yarns provides the best, friendliest customer service I've ever come across on the internet!


When I returned from the honeymoon, I ordered 14 16 balls of KnitPicks Shine Worsted: 8 in Cream, 4 6 in Sea Spray, and 2 in Bachelor Button. I also ordered shade cards for Shine and Shine Worsted for future reference. This was my first KnitPicks purchase, and I have been pleased so far. The yarn has a nice luster, and it is very soft, especially after it is knitted up. There have been a few nubby spots as I've been knitting, but nothing too serious. The bulk of that yarn is on its way to becoming a baby blanket for John's friends in Istanbul who were so generous and hospitable while we were there. They have a 3-month-old -- well actually, by now he must be at least 4 months old. I'm using Cris's Sampler Baby Blanket pattern (it's really more of a template), and it's currently about 24" square. My goal is 36" square, so, if my math is correct, I'm only about 45% done. The remaining yarn I will knit into chemo caps and donate to Support Connection, an organization where my mom volunteers. They provide all sorts of great services to women with breast and ovarian cancer. In the future I hope to make chemo caps whenever I am between projects.

Now I am on a self-declared yarn purchasing hiatus. I have even been to a wonderful new yarn store (Knitty City) and not purchased anything! I have decided I need to knit up enough of the yarn in my stash to free up some space in my closet before I can make any more purchases.