March 9, 2006 Love the sparkle hat!

I finished the sparklt hat and absolutely love it. It was such a fun quick knit as well. I've gotten another skein of the Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky and I'm going to whip one up for myself before I leave for my China trip in a week and a half. I asked hubby what I should bring on the trip to knit and he looked at me incredulously- what about my sweater!!??? Ok, ok, I was just a little bit worried about the space it might occupy in my very likely to be super full luggage. I think I'll try anyway and just bring a couple of balls of yarn. Its not like I'll finish the whole thing on the trip anyway. He did throw down the gauntlet though, we may be going on vacation at the end of May to Mexico with some friends: "Hey, that sweater would be a great thing to bring for the cool evenings!" Time's a ticking.

In case you're just arriving, I'm going to work the intarsia pattern from Knitty's Andre into the front a sweater. I don't know about you, but I had some difficulty finding a good, basic, men's sweater pattern. My LYS finally directed me to where I found a great stockinette stitch sweater with a nice collar. Should work well. Next, yarn- what to use? The pattern calls for Cleckworth Angora, but I wanted something (cheaper) and really sturdy, since I see this as a casual knockaround type garment. Cascade 220 it is! Lots of yardage to the skein, not expensive, plenty of colors to choose from, and nice to knit with and wear. I'll have either drag hubby to the yarn store or have him look online and choose his colors. Update on that aspect soon!