Good news! I will be an aunt again! My sister is pregnant with baby #3! And it’s a boy! So I have to get crackin’ on some knitted goodness for him. Must start rifling through baby patterns. Wahoo!
And THANKS to everyone for your input on the Butterfly frill quandary. I do hope that no one lost sleep over it. After much thought and your input I have decided to do the double frill and knit all four frills now before starting the body of the dress. I’m still in the wee beginnings of frill #2. It’s a tough pattern to keep my attention. After about two pattern repeats I feel I need to put it down and work on something else. So for those of you keeping track, I should be finished with this dress by the spring of 2011. You can hold me to it!
I think I’m going to buy the yarn for the Hourglass Sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts on Monday. And do you remember how I wanted to make the Aran tree skirt from Handknit Holidays? Well I wanna get started on that, too! I think having 2,435,937 projects going on at the same time will be GREAT!
Hey, a question about the yarn for that tree skirt. The pattern calls for Reynolds Lopi doubled throughout. So that would be 17 balls for the main part and 4 balls for the border. 21 balls of Lopi! I would love to use the Lopi for the tree skirt but I’d have to save my pennies for a long while. Does anyone know where to get good cheap Lopi? Black market Lopi? Or do you know of a good (and cheaper) substitute for it? Someone was knitting it for the Handknit Holidays Knitalong and she was using Lion Brand’s Wool-Ease Thick & Quick but that doesn’t come in great colors and I really like the colors used in the pattern. I mean Lopi usually sells for around $6 a ball and that’s an ok price for yarn but when you are having to buy 21 balls of it, yikes. So let me know if you know of a place that sells it for cheaper. Or if you know of someone who has an extra $125 or so layin’ around let me know that, too. I got just the home for it.
Donna
March 15, 2006 at 8:21 pm (18 years ago)You could try the knitswap Yahoo group, or Yarn Forward (yarnforward.com, I think) – they had quite the Lopi fire sale a few years ago when Lopi changed colorways; the prices are pretty good. And Camilla Valley Farm in Canada has a huge selection of Lopi and very resaonable prices (camillavalleyfarm.com). I have a lot of Lopi sweaters in my future, I guess 🙂
anne
March 15, 2006 at 9:21 pm (18 years ago)I’m offering this suggestion without checking first, but I bought some Gjestal Naturjarn from Elann.com awhile back that is a lot like a bulky Lopi, so it might even work to replace the thinner yarn held double. However, color selection can be iffy. But it’s worth a shot!
Melissa
March 16, 2006 at 10:09 am (18 years ago)Congrats on being an auntie again!
rcpl_knitter
March 16, 2006 at 11:45 am (18 years ago)Hmm. Knitpicks has a wool/alpaca blend bulky yarn called Sierra that might work – it’s cheaper by a couple of dollars, but I don’t know if it would be a good substitute (it’s 110yards/100g vs. 109/100 for lopi so it might work)
Amy
March 17, 2006 at 11:56 am (18 years ago)Halcyon yarn has a bulk purchase discount. Also start checking for online auctions.
Areli
March 19, 2006 at 5:09 pm (18 years ago)Congratulations on the new baby coming to your family! More babies to knit for. I have some yarn waiting for me to start an hourglass, too. One day soon, I hope to get to it.