more cables! and a hood!

so last week I finished knitting the blue project and started shaping the top of the x-back tank. I had some quality knitting time yesterday after doing five hours of laundry and house-cleaning (domestic goddessing is not as glamorous as the name implies!) and all that is left on the x-back is the straps. Just seven stitches across for a lot of inches, then three-needle bindoff and done! probably could get it done tonight depending on how late we run and if Wes wants to just sit around and watch TV. so, in anticipation of this weekend's plane trip (yay Seattle! yay Luke!) I stopped by Anacapa Fine Yarns at lunch. I thought I had my heart set on making this, but when I got ready to leave for AFY, I decided to wait and browse through the many books and magazines Lois has available. I think this is mostly because I did not want to pay $5.50 for just one pattern.
And I definitely made the right decision. The very first magazine I picked up, KnitScene, had three patterns I was interested in making, just at first glance. The magazine costs $7.99 so this is a much better deal - plus it is full of articles and ads for other knitting websites and products. There was even an article on felting without a washing machine, which I am very interested in, since I have to pay to use the machines at our apartment complex and I don't want to clog up anyone else's washer with lots of fuzz from the blue project. So I feel like this was a good investment. The pattern I liked best was this gorgeous cabled hoodie cardigan (pictured at left). In the hardness category it is "ready for a challenge" so I hope I can handle it ... I still have not technically made anything with arms. But I know how to do cables, so I should be okay. Lois will love to help me on anything I get stuck on, I am sure :)
I first picked out a great royal blue flecked with grey and orange, but there was only one ball of it at the store and it turns out that was a really OLD ball of yarn and Tahki Yarns doesn't even produce that color anymore. So while I was sad and lost, wandering around the store for a while, I finally decided on brown. This is a good neutral color and the tweed yarn used in this pattern has great flecks of pink and white in the brown yarn, so I was sold. I used my AFY Frequent Buyer certificate to save $25 on my order (love coupons!) and now I am back to work, dreaming about starting on this project! I will probably try to do a gauge swatch before getting on the plane to Seattle on Thursday because the yarn I bought is a little bit different than the yarn used in the original. The original called for 100% wool yarn and I don't think it gets that cold here in Ventura, so I bought Tahki Yarns New Tweed, which is a blend of 60% wool, 14% silk and 26% viscose to keep it from getting too warm. At first I was really disappointed I couldn't use the blue, but then I remembered that last winter I wore the crap out of my brown pull-over and often thought how nice it would be to have a cardigan of a similar color. Now I will have one - with a hood! That makes it extra great :)