Well, I cast on for a pair of Monkeys on Friday, and then on Saturday my order from WEBS arrived--Classic Elite Skye Tweed to make a Cobblestone for Alex. It's official: I'm a sheep. Put a bell on me, I'm done.
The Skye Tweed was a great deal (if you're interested, order now--the "manly" colors are nearly gone), but boy howdy is it scritchy. However, in our case this is only a problem for the knitter. When I opened up the box, Alex grabbed a ball and said, "Wow, you're right, it is scratchy!" And then he stuck it under his shirt and rubbed it around laciviously. Wool pervert.
I think this is going to be a good color on him. It's brighter in real life, with little flecks of hot pink and orange and blue. OK, that sounds like hideous novelty yarn, but I promise you it's subtle. I am a little worried about the staining you can see here on the labels--hope I'm not going to sport crimson fingers all fall. Note to self: cover the blocking board when the time comes!
And the Monkeys, well, what can I say: 1,098 Ravelers (is that what we are?) can't be wrong. I'm even doing the picot mod so zealously recommended by January One. Check out the fabulous long-tail provisional cast-on that Veronique showed me at Spiders last week. You cast on with both waste yarn and your working yarn, and then when the time comes you just pick up and knit the working loops with your last row of picot and voila! No tedious hemming! No crochet chaining! Brilliant. I want to put picot on everything now. Oh, and the lovely, lovely yarn: it's Tough Sock from Hello Yarn. I hope you like the colorway as much as I do, because with this yardage--500!--I just might have enough for two pairs.
Isn't that such a great technique? I think I first heard about it from Knit & Tonic. I love that it's so obvious: one strand of scrap yarn, one strand of the main yarn, and the ubiquitous long tail cast-on. And you don't even need to measure out how much yarn you need! Why didn't I think of that?!
Can't wait to see Cobblestone in progress :)
Posted by: Veronique | August 21, 2007 at 03:21 PM
Luckily I have some très manly brown Classic Elite Skye Tweed in le stash for this project!
Love the Monkey picot mods, can't wait to see that...
Posted by: Heather | August 21, 2007 at 07:06 PM
Yay for yarn packages - I hope that it doesn't leak on you!!
The Monkeys are looking cute with the picot.
Posted by: schrodinger | August 21, 2007 at 07:49 PM
Yay, Katy! I am a total picot monkey ho! All monkeys, all picot, all the time! Love the Tweed! and love the Hello Yarn!
Posted by: Lori | August 21, 2007 at 09:59 PM
wool pervert -- i love it!
Posted by: carrie m | August 22, 2007 at 08:06 PM
OK, I have the same issue with the Skye Tweed I bought in Heath colorway from Webs. I noticed it about four hours before I read your blog and just after I read about Tiennie buying a whole bunch of ST from WEBS. Seriously, ST is in the water thanks to t w e e d! I'm just going to give my sweater (soon to be Sunrise Circle) a good soaking. But you're right, it's not nearly as nice to knit with as I expected. Pretty, but not so nice.
Posted by: Elinor | August 22, 2007 at 10:13 PM