Bad news first

Two things:

#1: The bad news is that my local Barnes & Noble has either stopped carrying BurdaStyle, or they haven't gotten the November issue in yet. Which is a shame, because based on some previews I've seen on other blogs, I'm actually interested in picking this one up. There's this kimono-esque shirt and this kind of intriguing blouse that I could see myself making (the kimono shirt in particular), and this formal dress that falls into the category of "I wish I had an excuse to sew this." I'll check again next week, but I may have to wait and hope that those are some of the patterns that the BurdaStyle site is willing to share. They didn't have the latest SewStylish either, which was disappointing. I guess I could have looked at Threads, but I also needed to stop at the grocery store and didn't want to take a lot more time. So kind of a letdown on the sewing front. The good news (for my interest, not for my wallet) is that they did have all three of the knitting magazines I was thinking about picking up. So I got the latest KnitScene (love that magazine), a copy of knit.wear , and the special Jane Austen Knits issue that Interweave recently came out with. (I am also a sucker for all things Jane. And based on my initial flip-through, it looks like there's some potentially interesting articles too, all about things like how they dyed fabric back in the Regency era, a profile on a sewing pattern company that focuses on historic garments, etc.)

So in summary, bad B&N trip on the sewing front, great on the knitting one.

#2: The bad news is, I think I'm going to have to start the sweater over entirely. After ripping out about 7 rows and re-knitting some over the last few days, I discovered that the mistakes apparently go back further than I'd thought, because there's this one section where I still didn't have the right number of stitches to follow the pattern, and had to keep trying to compensate. It's a bit of a mess. Also, when I tried it on, this thing is off-the-shoulder huge. I think the neckline stretched while I was waiting for step 2, because it was always a tight fit around that circular needle. So as much as I hate to do it, I think I may have to just start again. I'm debating whether it should be one needle size down.

The good news is, with all of this handling of the yarn I've been doing over the last couple of days, my hands are feeling no ill effects. So I think I can now safely say that my wool sensitivity does not extend to alpaca. (Now if only they'd make alpaca fabric as a substitute for wool...)

A day of small things. (And some rather oversized ones.)

Because I don't really have anything finished to show. Things have been kind of busy lately, since I had to work almost all day on Saturday, I was out on Friday night, and had way too much going on between church activities and flute choir on Sunday to do much. But I've been working on a couple of different things as I've been able to since the last post, so here's what's been going on in my crafty world:

I've been refashioning a shirt-- a 100% silk blouse that I thrifted some time ago. I skipped rock climbing on Monday to stay home and sew, since I got done teaching too late anyway, and made some nice progress on this. It's close to being done, I just have to deal with the sleeves. But here's a teaser shot.

This is one of the things I really like about refashioning--they're the perfect sewing project in a pinch for when I just don't have time to lay out a pattern and cut something out.

I knitted a gauge swatch for one of the tank tops I'm hoping to make soon. I think it's ok....the width was absolutely spot-on, but the number of rows left me about half an inch short of what the book said. So I'm guessing I just make this a little longer if need be. I hope it's ok, anyway, since I stopped at Joann's on Monday to pick up a couple of things I needed for said refashion, and already bought the circular needle that I need. (I'm excited about this yarn. Not only is it a very pretty blue, but it's sparkly! And it's cotton!)

I had stopped in Goodwill earlier this week too, in order to pick up something for another refashion where I didn't have anything good on hand to add to what I do have. While I was there, I saw a sweater with a low wool content, and almost got it. But I didn't. And then I went back today before I went to my band teaching job, and ended up getting 3 sweaters with low animal-fiber contents. As you can see, they're all kind of ugly, so my plan is to unravel them for the yarn and use them as test subjects to see how my skin handles them. So here's what I've got:

1. A bit too long for a tunic, a bit too short for a sweater dress. And a ridiculously oversized cowl that makes it look way too 80s for anyone's good. The blend is 55% cotton, 20% viscose, 20% acrylic and 5% rabbit hair. (I guess that would also be known as angora? Or does it have to be a certain type of rabbit for that?) I'm guessing worsted weight.

2. The original sweater I spotted and didn't buy. I'm not seeing how this sweater would possibly be flattering on anyone, really. Especially with that bubble turtleneck thing. It makes me think of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. Come on, Express, you should know better. Anyway, this one is 45% acrylic, 44% polyester, and 11% wool. Definitely a bulky yarn.

3. The best one of the three stylewise by far, and if it wasn't so huge, I'd be potentially tempted to just keep it as is. I do love a long cardi. And it's super-soft. You can't really tell from the picture, but the yarn is really pretty-- it's kind of a blend of a mossy green, grey, a greyish blue, and something that looks kind of yellowish-green. This one's 74% polyester, 11% mohair, 7% acrylic and 8% wool. It also looks like a worsted-weight.

None of these seemed to really set me off when handling them in the store or trying them on for the photos, so maybe that means I'll be ok? I'm most definitely going to wash these first, since they do have that kind of musty thrift-store smell, and then I guess I'll start dissecting them and see how much yarn I end up with. Either way, 3 sweaters' worth of yarn for $10.50 is definitely not a bad way to start my experimentation!

edit, later this evening: So after looking at some tutorials on how to unravel the sweaters for maximum yarn yield, I decided to go ahead and work on dissecting the Stay-Puft Marshmallow sweater. (I'd already thrown the other two in the washer before reading that wool should be unraveled first, then washed. Hopefully the cardi is ok. I didn't put them in the dryer, and I wash everything on cold...) So far, it seems that I was able to work with the yarn for about 2 1/2 hours before my palms started feeling a little funny. The downside is, I think this sweater is also partially felted! The strands are definitely clinging together a bit much, to the point where I have to use my thread clippers to chop those extra fuzzies apart on a fairly regular basis. For those of you who have more experience with yarn than me--is this still usable?