swatches

My knitpicks order arrived last week -- marvelous! Yarnwise, there's 'bare' DK merino for experimentation with natural dyes and 'burgundy' gloss for socks. The merino was much softer than I'd expected. And the color of the Gloss is sensational, shifting from a mauve to a brick red depending on the light.

Along with the yarn came some needles, which were promptly put to swatching use. These are for Mountain Man's sweater. Naturally, his favorite is the stockinette, but I refuse to knit a sweater that could just as well be purchased at J.Crew. It'll still be raglan-sleeve, roll-neck, and mostly stockinette, but it'll be spruced up with a stripe of the branched travelling stitch pattern along each sleeve.

The gloss swatch was even yummier. The idea is to have a 2x2 ribbed sock with the four-stitch aran braid down the instep. You may notice some strange black blobs in the photos above. Leila, as usual, insisted on getting herself in the middle of things. There was just a sliver of morning sunshine, and I could hardly move the whole operation.