Taking fugly to a new level

I'm sure you're all aware of this yarn:

Rico Can-Can. If you're not, then I envy you. This stuff has been taking the knitting world "by storm" recently. And by "storm", I mean not in a good way. It truly is evil stuff. But ladies of a certain demographic seem to love it. It produces a ruffle effect, and is mostly used for scarves like this:

Mm. Isn't is classy? Can't you see youself wearing this to all the hottest parties hosted by the Ambassador, or to the first night at the opera? Yeah. This is what the word fugly was invented for. Not a nice word, but apt all the same.

So how come I ended up with some in my stash? Granted it's not the real thing, but it the same thing. I have no idea what came over me the day I bought it. I call it "Only a fiver" syndrome. You know, when something is so cheap (e.g. only €5) that you just can't not buy it. It stank up my stash for a while as I tried to pretend it wasn't there. I should have gifted it to a charity shop I guess, but somehow I didn't, which worries me. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I was heading out to knit night and I had nothing I could bring with me. My Aeolian shawl is too complicated to knit while chatting, and I had no socks on the go (gasp). So I ran upstairs, opened the woolrobe and stuck my hand in. This is what came out. What could I do.

I cast on 9 sts and got going. It's a fiddly mother to knit with, let me tell you! Here's a link to a YouTube video on how to knit with it. I finished this in my Mam & Dads this morning, and my Mam went positively nuts for it! Bless her heart she thought it was only gorgeous. So I've decided to give it to her for her birthday in October.

As you can see, Alice has taken quite a shine to it too and has begged me to make one for her. Jeeze Louise, I have to make another one??? *sigh* A mothers lot is never an easy one. I have two more balls of it left, so I suppose I'll just look on it as stashbusting.

In other, more respectable knitty news, I cast on for a cardigan last week to go with my new dress.

The pattern is Decimal, from Knitty Spring 2009. I'm using some teal cotton I got recently for it. I think it's coming along nicely!

I also picked up my Ethereal top again. This one is going on too long for my liking. I'm about 75% done on one sleeve with one more to do then I'm done. I hope to have this finished soon. I'm also halfway through my Aeolian shawl. I've finished the main part and am ready to start the edging. According to the designer it uses 45% of the total yarn and I have half left so I'm good to go on the full edging version.

I'd like to have them both finished in time for this. This Is Knit is doing a yarn tasting and hosting the launch of Carol Feller's fantastic new book, Contemporary Irish Knits on Sept 8th. That's 12 days away. Hmm. Maybe I won't get the shawl done., but I really hope to have Ethereal done. I'd love to wear it to the party!

In sad news, my 6 weeks of bliss are over all too soon. Back to work on Monday. I haz a sad.

Good knitting!

Yarn Store Outing

A knitty friend of mine, BionicLaura works in a yarn store on the other side of Dublin, Winnie's Craft Café. To my shame, I hadn't yet made the trip to visit her or scope out the shop.
Well, I fixed that last Friday. I bundled Alice in the car and off I went.

I must say that it's a lovely shop. I was greeted with a really gorgeous window display of a knitted teddy bears picnic. So cute. I've no pictures, sadly, I was a bit remiss there.

Inside, the store has a great selection of yarns not available elsewhere along with the usual staples. There is also a huge selection of beads & jewellery making accessories. Needless to say the magpie in me made me buy some beads:


Miyuki Japanese Seed Beads 6/0 Round in Turquoise. Yum. I've no idea how many are in the tube, but I'm sure I'll find a use for them soon.

They also have lots of knitting notions, including these lovely stitch markers hand made by a woman in Uganda. I just had to get some:



I spied this lonely skein of laceweight in a basket on a table and snapped it up:



It's Garnstudio Drops Alpaca Lace. 70% Baby Alpaca, 30% Mulberry Silk. You can see the price, great value for 870 yards of laceweight. I think I might try to dye it.

You may remember I visited Cushendale Woollen Mills in Kilkenny last year, and absolutely loved the mills and their yarns. When I saw these skeins of DK I had to get them. I love the shade of charcoal:



There's also a really scrummy café in the back of the shop. While I was there two other lovely Dublin Knitters, (both Helens) arrived and we decided to have lunch together. I had the most delicious rocky road I've had in a long time. Alice also seemed to enjoy the millionaires shortbread!

Overall I must say it's a really lovely store with a great selection of yarns reasonably priced and the added bonus of the café in the back makes it a must visit. It's a shame it's a bit difficult to get to for me, but I'll definitely go back!

In knitting progress news, I've finished the yucca chart repeats on my Aeolian Shawl:



This took longer than I thought. The pattern states to repeat the yucca chart 12 times and you'll have 293 stitches. Not so. I think I ended up doing 15 or 16 repeats of the chart to get that stitch count. Still, I'm there now and ready to move on to the transition chart. This portion of the shawl used 22g of yarn, so I have 77g left. Hopefully it will be enough!

Good knitting!