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Contrary to appearances, my life does not, in fact, revolve around knitting. Really. Having said that, however, I am compelled to report that yesterday was spent wandering around yarn stores in Manhattan. I’ve said before that I’m not an impluse buyer of yarn (anymore), so I only bought one ball. Really I just wanted to get some ideas and look at the pretty stuff. My favoritist place of all that I went to yesterday was Habu Textiles. I’ve been wanting to check this place out for a while, and it didn’t disappoint. They have yarn made out of lots of unique materials, including linen paper, fine steel, and fiber from something called a “kenaf” plant. They even have awesome yarn made from actual fishing nets (it’s silk!). Lots of great materials for weaving, although I’m sure anyone interested in weaving probably already knows about the place.

I just got a little ball of yarn to start out with - I wanted to see what it was like knitted up before I went too crazy. This is a cotton yarn, but it feels and looks like paper. They said it will soften up after a little use, but the knitted fabric is actually softer than you would think it would be. I love it! I have a hankering to use this stuff for one of the vintage patterns I’ve picked out - would be an interesting combination of old-fashioned design and modern material. Okay, I just made that up. They might have had paper yarn back then, who knows? In case you’re interested, I used size US0 needles here.

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Here’s the progress on the front. I have never, not even for one second, not loved knitting this blouse. Not even when I realized that my row gauge is totally off from the pattern, and therefore I would have to completely revamp the short row directions. The pattern was written up nicely, and would have been pretty easy to follow if my gauge had been on. But after some serious recalculating, and figuring out how to start the lace pattern at a different point each row, I gotter done. I ended up knitting 8 more short rows than the pattern called for so that the ribbed section would be high enough in the front. I just have to say thanks to Teva for making the instructions clear enough that I could figure out how to make alterations (short rows and lace both being things with which I have little experience).

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Here’s a little preview of Season of Darkness etc. Seriously, this yarn is next to impossible to photograph. I color-corrected the pic (a lot), so that it reads more like the actual yarn, but this picture still does not do it justice. I am so happy and excited to be using this yarn - it’s really wonderful. Still working on my swatches, trying to get gauge. Hopefully I’ll be able to start on the actual jacket sometime this week…