Consoling myself for idiocy with yarn

Thank you all for your kind thoughts. SS will appreciate them. She is doing better, surgery scheduled for this morning. I've tried to convert her to knitting for 2 years but she is resistant. I'm wearing her down though. Another couple years or so and she is going to succumb. I can just feel it in my bones.

I know that there was a look that crossed her face, a look of desire when she held this in her hand yesterday. She was deep under the influence of heavy medication, but this is really really nice yarn. It is Alpaca Peru. Alpaca Peru is warm and yet so airy and light, it could be floating. It has that wonderful alpaca silkiness in a double knitting weight. It demands to be something special, a great scarf, a wonderful cape, or an very elegant fall and winter shawl. Don't get me started on sweaters. I know it would make a gorgeous sweater. I can already see just how I would make it in my mind (I think the red wants to come home with me too.) When you decide to treat yourself, do consider Alpaca Peru.

I wasn't sure what it wanted to be till last week, when my friend loaned me her copy of Wrap Style. This is a really nice book, published in 2005, so it has been around for a while. Anne Budd and Pam Allen's approach to wraps is elbow length garments that fit over, around, and across the wearers shoulders without being fussy or shawl like. The book includes lacy delicate projects and warm, comfy, cozy projects. There are formal projects, and casual but utterly lovely things. Of the 24 projects in the book, 10 of them just speak to me. Most of the rest, are 'yeah I could wear that projects. If you click the link check out the 'Look inside' section.

Wandering Aran fields ranks very high. Twisty Turns is going to be mine. In fact, Twisty Turns is the original design I choose for my Alpaca Peru. I started it last night, but the soft Alpaca isn't giving me the stitch definition on the ribs the pattern is looking for. Thinking it might be better in lace, I looked at the many capelet variations and choose to follow Ann Budd's 'Grand Plan' Capelet. In the book it is shown in red with a nice Horseshoe lace at the bottom, and a simple collar. I'm already a fan of her grand plan concept. You choose the increases, the lace, if you are going to have a collar, if you are going to do cables. It make you the designer of your own unique variation on a theme. OK the part that really thrills me is that the math is done for you. It is all laid out, based on the gauge of your knitting.

This yarn deserves unique. It probably deserves lace. It will get them. I may do the Horseshoe lace, but it could be many of the lace designs from my stitch dictionary. I'll think about that as I work through the plain top.

Now off to work. I'll knit for a bit longer, then I'm off to pick up a few things, visit the hospital and see how things went, mow lawns, then home to mow more. It will be a long busy day, and I'd best gird my loins with a little early morning knitting.

Before I forget, I'm giving Wrap Style a Double Treble. For my bookshelf, this is a 'just go out and get it' sort of book with a very strong appeal. For everyone else, it might be more accurate to say it is a Treble. There really is something for everyone here.