New Project - Stranded Knitting

Things were a bit busy at work the last couple of months but have returned to something resembling normal recently.  For a while there was travel, travel, travel.  Fun, but very nice to be home again. 

I'm not a huge fan of being a girl and limiting myself to girl products that fit in a one quart zip lock bag, if ya know what I mean.  That part of travel rather cramps my style.  And you can only bring along sooo many shoes in a carry-on bag.  Kinda limits one's options. 

I did get a chance to work on a new project while I was away.  I decided to tackle stranded knitting.  You know, those lovely pieces using intricate patterns and two or more colors?  

Between YouTube and a great pattern book, I was on my way.  As an aside... I love YouTube.  It's not all stupid people tricks and revolutions.  I'm waiting for a video series on brain surgery.   That could be fun. Well, perhaps not. 

I found a book with great patterns at the library:  Poetry in Stitches by Solveig Hisdal.  I liked it so much that the Sweetie tracked down a copy for me.  So small task as it had been out of print for awhile.  Thank you, Sweetie.

I was in love with several patterns in the book.  But the idea of taking on something as large as a sweater when I had no idea what I was doing seemed a bit daunting.  And what if I hated this technique?  I would have another UFO laying around, nagging at me.

I started smaller.  And cobbled together a pattern for a scarf from the Child' Cardigan and Cap pattern on page 112. 

Of course I needed more yarn.  Not really, but I went and purchased some anyway... some Classic Elite MountainTop Vail in a light gray and cream.  Hey, I don't name these.  It's a blend of 70% alpaca and 30% bamboo.  It is a fingering weight yarn, which is more fine than I had used to date, but it is so soft I just had to have it.  The purple is Plymouth Baby Alpaca Lace.  Again, super soft.

I was off to the races.  I had a pattern, yarn, a new circular needle, and time to kill in airports.  I am more patient and tolerant traveler when I have a knitting or crochet project with me.  Which is good for everyone.  Just sayin'

In my next installment (not two months from now, I promise) I'll fill you in on how my project progressed.