New Beginnings

After finishing my Flower Basket Shawl and about halfway into my first pair of baby socks, some serious knitterly ennui set in. I was like, why am I doing this? I hate baby socks! When will I start the next new exciting project?! Yeah, it was a real crisis. Sifting through all my projects-in-waiting I just wasn't excited about any of them. Lace socks? In wool? It'll be another season before I can wear them. Knitted dinosaur? I just did that. Trellis Scarf? I just finished a big-ole lace shawl and it was an Evelyn A Clark design to boot. I was in a serious rut.

Then I really started thinking about it. I remembered that I felt the same way after I finished my sweater, back in February, and after I finished Manly. I had lots of little projects on my plate but no real desire to knit them. I wanted to start another "big" project. A sweater. A shawl. Something substantial that I could sink my needles into. Then I took a good long look at the cover project on the Summer IK. The Lotus Blossom Tank. I liked it. I opened the magazine and took a good long look at the pattern itself and the stats. I even measured my bust (cause you know, something like that could change*.) I was in love. And the yarn is one that I have worked with before, Southwest Trading Company's bamboo yarn. I used that same yarn to make my Branching Out. So, I loved the pattern, thought the second size would make a nice, snug tank top, and I really loved the lacy pattern. I decided to do it.

My next stop, of course, was the LYS. Not Holy Threads. The other one. Sew EZ Too on Garland. Now, I have had my issues with the store in the past. Mainly the fact that they rarely have enough yarn, of one color, to make a sweater in stock. I understand this. How many people are actually making sweaters instead of felted baskets? I thought this time it would be different though. For one thing, the Lotus Blossom Tank is a tank top not a sweater, and therefore I only needed three balls of the recommended yarn. Three balls, I thought. They should have that. So I stop there after work on Friday to pick some up. And whaddyaknow? They don't have three balls of the same color. They have two balls of one color, and one ball of each of the other two colors. Fuck.

I ask the Yarn Lady (seriously, I think her name is Susan, but for the purposes of the blog we shall call her the Yarn Lady) if they have any more of the bamboo yarn. She confirms that they do not. I sigh heavily and consider whether I can make the bottom of the tank in one color and the top in another? (No.) After a few minutes, sensing my frustration, the Yarn Lady asks me whether I just like the bamboo yarn or if I could find a substitute? I explain the situation and she directs me to her wall o' cotton. Now, I have mentioned in the past my dislike of cotton yarn and how I would rather poke my eye out with an extra sharp dpn then knit with it again. Nonetheless, I'm desperate. I look at the yarn.

As the Yarn Lady points out the nice, multi-colored, Katia (read: cotton yarn from hell that feels like you're knitting with jeans, and not the nice, soft, worn-in jeans, but the brand new, need to be worn and washed and worn and washed about a hundred times before the stiffness goes away type of jeans) and lo and behold, right above the aforementioned crap yarn is a, well, a nice looking cotton yarn. With a subtle sheen. I pick it up. Yarn Lady looks at me, looks at the yarn and says, "It was meant to be**." And so it was. I have posted a picture of the ball band above because I don't even know what the name of the yarn manufacturer is, since it's written in Greek. Literally.

*Actually, my bust is larger than I thought it was. I believe that this is (sadly) due to weight gain and not to actual breast growth.

**No. She didn't really say that, but she did rave about the yarn.