Stuff in the Mail

Just about the only complain I have about my favorite sock yarn, Opal, is that I have no place to buy it in person. The online pictures never do justice to the beautiful colors and patterns.

This is Opal Chameleon from the Rainforest collection. I audibly ahhhed when I took it out of the box. As usual, the colors exceed expectations. I'm hoping I'll be better able to show the beautiful colors when I start knitting it.

There was another ahhh when I touched it. Recent Opal collections seem to be plumper and softer than earlier collections. It feels heavenly.

Daughter Heather asked for something with green for her May birthday socks, so this yarn is scheduled to be knit during next weeks trip to Idaho. Now I need to find the perfect stitch pattern to show off the yarn colors.


Another package in the mail this week contained the new, improved Janet Szabo's Aran Sweater Design. I'm excited to have this 175 page addition to my knitting library.

It has all the basic, technical things you expect to find. Information that will allow you to follow a published Aran pattern and get profession looking results. Then, it goes on to teach designing: finding attractive cable combinations, getting the sweater to turn out the right size, picking yarn and color, and much more.

There's more. It goes on to describe and diagram bottom up construction, top down construction (neckband first and body first), dropped shoulder construction with and without saddles, peasant sleeve construction with and without saddles, set-in sleeves with and without saddles, raglan sleeves with and without saddles, and raglan construction bottom up and from the top.

Very impressive. I will be using this as a reference book for the rest of my knitting life.

And I have to mention the four patterns at the end of the book. One of them, the Set-in Sleeve Aran Project, is on my knitting list for that Dusty Teal Peruvian Highland Wool I have sitting in my stash. You can see a picture of the pattern here.