Esotarika: Score!

The end.

Actually to be more precise, the ends:

Yes! I finished the Fair Isle Pullover! Those are the remnants of all the ends I had to weave in - bleck! In a rush to photograph the finished product during the brief hours of available sunlight, I threw it on before the final blocking. Ignore the flying strands. They are just some of the ends I hadn't woven in yet. I love the way it fits and would be surprised if you didn't hear the giant sigh of relief I expelled when I found that the sleeves came out the right length.

I'm not 100% satisfied with the buckle. Funny story about that. I went to JoAnn's yesterday in search of a 1.25 inch silver buckle. They were having their "Midnight Madness" sale or some such promotional hooey, and the store was mobbed. I walked around and around with coupons burning a hole in my pocket and only walked out with the new Vogue Knitting (50% off). It's OK. I like the "Bell Sleeve Jacket" and Norah Gaughan's "Halter Dress", but I don't know that I would actually wear either. Oh yeah, the buckle.

Since I didn't find the buckle at JoAnn's, I headed to one of the yarn shops actually located in my city. Not to find a buckle necessarily, but just to fondle and scope out gifts for my secret pal. A little background on the two shops. One has been here for many, many years. It's run by an elderly couple (she is cranky, he is a busybody) and their daughter (a nice enough lady). I'll call it the "Old LYS". The shop is in an excellent location, but they never change their window displays or any other displays. They specialize in Lopi, and have a limited selection of other yarns. By limited, I mean that they only carry a few colors of any given yarn; usually red, navy, brown and green. Every time I go there, I swear that I will not go back. The other shop (the "New LYS") is on the same street, about a mile away. This shop is much smaller but has a gorgeous selection of high end yarns like Debbie Bliss, Rowan and ggh. I really want to like this shop, but they don't have much in the way of patterns. Whenever I go there, I do better if I already have a pattern in mind. OK, back to the story (this is going somewhere, I promise). I went to the New LYS and fell in love a shade of rich chocolate brown Rowan Felted Tweed. I've been wanting to wear knitted vests these days and actually had a few in mind to knit. Of course I didn't have the yardage requirements with me as it was an unplanned visit. So, I found a pattern in a book. I was even willing to buy it (RYC Classic Style - see the pink vest on the far bottom right). I could easily get gauge substituting the Felted Tweed, but I needed 4 skeins and they only had 3. Pooh. After they scrounged around to see if they had any more, I had to go through this exchange.

Shop owner: "What about this yarn?" [shows me something totally different from what I picked].

Me: "Hmmm, yeah, well, I really love this color and this gauge..." (Did you not see me browsing and fondling for like an hour? If there was another yarn, I would have seen it by now!)

Shop owner: "Are you sure you can gauge with this yarn?

Me: "Yes [reading out the gauge from the pattern]" (I know what I'm doing here).

Shop owner: "Let me ask you this, If there was only one of this color [offers up same yarn in burnt orange] would that be the color you want?"

Me: "Heh heh, no, really, I love the brown. It will go with more in my wardrobe" (Was she being snide????)

Shop owner: "We can order it for you"

Me: "Thanks, but I'm in an instant gratification mood" ( I want it right now and why does this always seem to happen when I come here?)

During this entire exchange, there were some people in the front of the store with very noisy toddlers, waiting for their friend who was trying to buy yarn while they waited (bad idea). She had her little person strapped to her back in a giant metal framed backpack thing. Did I mention that this is a very small store? A narrow store? Yeah. Not fun. I managed to escape without succumbing to the "I've been in here so long that I have to buy something" voice in my head.

3 hours of shopping and no buckle or vest yarn. What a waste of time!! I could have been knitting!

When I got home, I went up to my sewing room to pick up some fabric I had spread around that morning. I just happened to look down at the collection of bag making supplies that I keep near my cutting table. What do you think was sitting right on top? A 1.25 inch silver buckle!!!

Here's the sweater after final blocking: (Look over my left shoulder to see the candle holder from my Secret Pal)

Ok, that was a really longwinded way to tell you about the buckle, but there's more:

Today, I went to my favorite not-so-local yarn shop in Standish (30 minutes away) where they were having a 25% off yarn sale. I had exactly $75 to spend and bought yarn for both of the vests I wanted to make. Get this: it came to $74.86!!

"Veste Everest" by Veronik Avery from Interweave, Fall 2005 to be knit in New England Highland by Harrisville Designs (it's a dark chololate brown):