Handoff in a Parking Lot

Not nearly as sketchy as it sounds and more exciting...the kind sales rep from Estelle Yarns offered to meet me on Saturday morning to trade the light brown colourway of Eco Super Alpaca I won at the October DKC meeting for my preferred shade of "anything grey".

In the end it is the lightest undyed shade (why does an undyed shade still have a "dye" lot designation?) of gorgeous soft grey they offer.

With knitting and assembly done on Eyelet Cardigan (I'll head out to pick up buttons today)last evening I indulged in a little "palette cleansing" by swatching the new yarn. My oh my its nice stuff! It's worthy of becoming something that isn't too fussy and so best shows off the cozy, natural warm loveliness of it.

It stands to reason yarn company patterns should first and foremost highlight yarn over design so for ideas on how to showcase this Alpaca I went to my little stack of Debbie Bliss Magazines.

In the Winter '09/10 issue there's a generous, straight cut cowl pullover. Its contrasting hems would accommodate the fact I'll need to supplement the prize yarn with another couple of skeins to have sufficient yardage for a big cozy sweater in my size.

The pattern calls for Donegal Luxury Tweed Chunky at 13 stitches over 4 inches on 6.5 mm needles in the mock rib pattern. The alpaca knit up to 16 on the recommended 6mm needles so with bigger needles and a bit of playing with the numbers I think it would work. If you're reading this and you're thinking "that won't work!" please, please, please comment and tell me so! Please!

So that's what I'm playing around with in my mind today while I do my thing as resident char woman chez Sel and Poivre. Its a big step down from the weekend excitement of meeting up with strangers in parking lots!

I hope you had an exciting weekend! Thanks for dropping by!