How Freakin' Cool.

How cool is this?! Amie, aka RosebyAny (see sidebar for link), knit me a turtle soap holder. Out of the blue! He's so damned cute too! I love him. She said she was willing to write up a pattern for him too, if someone asked. I think I am going to do so. I was a little out of it last night, so I doubt my true appreciation for this little fella came thru when I received, but I love the little bugger.

And here he is stuffed with a peppermint tea-tree soap from my cabinet. He's actually a little darker than he is in these pics, I took Soapy (yeah, I named him Soapy) out on the porch for the light and the flashed kicked in as well. Can you say.. overexposure children? Sure you can.

I finally got around to starting the front of the Batman pullover last night, so hopefully I'll have something to show in another day or two. Happy Knitting!

EDIT: Bonus entry!

And another thing..... I was looking around for some new blogs to add to my list today... when BAM! Oh. My. God. I love this freaking sweater. My shmoo NEEDS this freaking sweater.

So I give him the link; "wow...that's rather nice"!!!!

Hell yes! A sweater we both like. FOR HIM!

It's Pulse by Kim Hargreaves for Rowan's Denim People. I have looked at this book before mind you, and thought...ehhhhh it's ok I guess. And the picture of the sweater in white and blue, it does it no justice. But wow! Loving those blues! And imagining it in greens.

So... anyone got this book they wanna sell cheap?

Yay Pictures.

Because you have been so patient,(and I finally got the camera out of the car) here are your pictures!

The long awaited back-of-the-Batman-sweater. It's going to be a pullover by the way.



The sari silk scarf I started in guilt after starting my socks. This was the yarn I picked up at Celtic Knot.

My toe up socks on two circs in that Dale Stork yarn I bought last Saturday. I did the figure 8 cast on for the first time ever, and I have to say that I like it. I love the way the toe looks. I think these will end up being the MagKnits Happy Socks but I am not quite sure yet. It really depends on how the pattern looks in this yarn once I get to the lace bit. I did make my cast on about twice what it called for however because I don't have pointy feet, I have wide feet, and they are almost the widest at the toes. I am really pleased with how this toe fits however. So even if they aren't fancy, they'll get worn. And there shouldnt' be any SSS with these either!


And finally a picture from today at the Kite Festival in DC. How cool is this kite?

Still no pictures.

Ok so I left the camera in the car again last night. Sue me.

In other news:

The Columbia Knit Night (aka Sucky Knitting Girls) was great! There was laughter and drooling over yarn and projects, and even a little knitting. Check out the link to Lighting Chick Knits in my sidebar for the pictures. Coleen not only brought her camera, she actually got it out and took some snaps! :)

As for the Batman Sweater, it is under revision. I have the back done. But now I am having doubts about the original plan for the sweater and have to rethink it. Do I just want to make a Vest? Do I want to do a sweater with a zipper? Or maybe buttons? Can I find Batman buttons? *sigh.* Should this be read by the intended recipient's Mom, can you please advise what he would be most likely to wear? Should I just say screw it and make a pullover? I have no idea.

So... in light of the delay on Batman, and instead of finishing up a current project or starting on my mom's Clapotis, (yes I know the first one I started isn't finished... hush!) I cast on for toe-up socks on two circs with the Dale Stork I nabbed on Saturday. It's a neat concept. I feel like it's moving very slowly but then I keep reminding myself it's two at once, not just one, so it has to be better. Or something.

Pictures tomorrow if I remember!

No pictures.

My camera is in my car and I don't feel like going down to get it so... yeah.

I went with Coleen (Lighting Chick Knits from Sucky Knitting Girls) to the Baltimore Knitting Group's Field Trip. It was great fun. We met up at All About Yarn, where I purchased two size 1 24 inch addis that are not naturas so hopefully they won't snap like my natura's did, and two balls of Dale Stork in color 105 (it's variegated blues. I know, ME! Variegated yarn! Why! That's so.... not shocking at all.) I plan to use this yarn to try making toe up socks at the same time on two circs.

Then we went to some coffee place and ate and knit and chatted for several hours. It was good stuff.

And then, because I was so close, I went ahead and went up to Celtic Knot Yarn Shop.
They have sari silk for sale there now! They also are now carrying that new yarn, "Meditation" that smells like Lavender when you knit with it. I managed to limit myself to only 3 skeins of the silk, because I can actually use it to make something for the-woman-allergic-to-wool, aka Mom.

I also managed to finish my Batman Motif (after ripping it 3 times) yesterday evening, and I have to say I am pleased with it. The rest of the sweater should progress along nicely.

That's it, pictures later.


OH! Don't forget if you are in the Columbia, MD area, Sucky Knitting Girls meets at the Panera Bread on Dobins at 7pm!!!!! Come join us!

Batman Revised.

Last night I did intarsia for the first time. It took a little bit to get hang of it, and it's possibly still not right, but I am happy with it now. I was not happy with the half-way point of my chart. The emblem was just too small. And to double (quadruple?) it would mean it was a little jumpy and way too big as well.


So I printed out some knitting graph paper and got the colored pencils from my previously unused art kit, and went at it.


I used the chart I had as a base for my sketch and then plugged it into an excel spreadsheet. Then I tweaked it a bit. I tweaked so much I have to drop down and change some of my stitches now.

The result of my labor is available here for you to download should you find yourself needing a batman emblem chart. I did the chart in gray and yellow so that you could still easily count stitches and I made it as big as I could on one page. So if you have need for the caped crusader, have at it.

Batman Begins.

You know that niggling feeling you get? The one that says... "Hrm.... You should really work on this project right now. I know you hadn't planned on it and you have other things to do, but really, work on this."

I got that. I had been toying around with my Batman Intarsia idea for a while. All in my head. I decided that I should actually take a look at the pattern I was basing this off of, and maybe get started on the first piece and plan some color and design placement. I got the 4T shirt I had bought to use as a reference. I cast on and measured as I went. I figured my gauge and my plans. And then I realized, the shirt I bought was short sleeve. I had NO IDEA how long to make the sleeves!

So I got in touch with Batman Junior's mother. Turns out his birthday is at the end of April and not in July like I thought it was. Hello little feeling, I hear you loud and clear! And I know that it's the time of year that is not for receiving sweaters, no matter how cool. So I am making this on the largish side of 4T (possibly it's 5? I don't have kids, I don't know.) and am supplementing it with Batman Armbands, a Batman Hat, and a Batman Ninja-tie Headband. Then perhaps he won't try to wear the sweater when it's 80 degrees out this summer.

Where is Christian Bale when you need him?

Bobbing right along.

Shmoo wore his sweater last week while it was still cool. He refused to let me take his picture in it, but it looks great on him. Something about raglan sleeves on men; it just looks right.

I haven't been knitting very much at all. Honestly, I've been playing warcraft. We have a patch that changes some things soon and I am trying to accomplish certain things while it is easier to do so. (Tier 0 gear anyone?)

I have made some hat progress however minor. Just some basic cables and ribs. I am playing with the rib a bit here and there as a tiny cable, semi random-like. I don't know that it will look good but that's ok, shmoo will wear it anyway. :)

That's it for here. I leave you with a picture that I couldn't resist taking last week. My lumps. :)

In-vest-ment.

Eunny released her larger size Vest pattern yesterday, so I bought it. It's such a lovely vest. It will be a good chance for me to learn colorwork and steeking.

I have even decided on my yarn and colors, KnitPicks Merino Style in Cornflower and Asparagus. (The Asparagus isn't available until April 7th.) But I have a ton of projects to complete before I am allowing myself to make this vest. I want to wrap up all my currents, and make that Aran Rose sweater I have the yarn for..... no, honest I do!

I have also joined the knitalong for the vest. You can find it here. I look forward to learning from the other members as they go along. Perhaps then I won't have any problems.

I haven't done much knitting in the past couple of days. Mostly just played with that cable design. I even checked for good cable books at the library yesterday, but didn't really find anything that sang out to me. I'll try again when I actually get around to designing the aran. Mostly, I am just happy to have gotten the central motif settled so that when I see other stitch patterns I like I can go ahead and decide if they would go well or not.

That's it from here, except:

Hey sucky knitting girls... I am thinking about making lip balm before Monday, what flavor would you most like to have?
peppermint, spearmint, doublemint, hibiscus, sweet orange, or orange cinnamon?

Damnation!

This is the second glass I have broken in just under 3 weeks. It was one of my favorites too! This is why our household has a plethora of plastic cups. Classy eh?

Thanks to Amie (RosebyAny in the Sucky Knitting Girls Links) and her suggestion of Aran Painter, I found my afternoon sucked away clicking my mouse and painting away at my cable pattern. It was great. I'll most likely buy this software once I find employment. (On a side-note, what the hell is wrong with Monster? They send me jobs that have nothing to do with what I entered. Sometimes it's frustrating, to say the least.)

Since it was the free demo copy, I just clicked away like a maniac and did screenshots to share how they looked.

First up, the cable as plotted on the graph paper.



Next, how it looks in a repeat. (Yay for photoshop!)



I like this, but it's just so BIG.

So I did some tweaking, and about the 3rd or 4th tweak through, I came up with this.



And the repeat....

I think I am happiest with the second one, just for ease of doing it and overall appearance. You really need several repeats to appreciate the motif and when it's huge, you just can't have as many. So it looks like I'll be charting again. (Note: If I had purchased the software, after I tinkered with it, it would have printed me a chart, or directions, or set it up in html for easy sharing with the world. Nice.)

And finally, I leave you today with a gratuitous cat shot. Here is Bri, busted playing with one of the dog's stuffies. Ironic when you consider that the only toys she plays with now are his cat toys.

My first time.

At creating my own cable that is.

Remember the picture I took from Ironforge in World of Warcraft?

Well, I finally started tinkering with it.

And then I drew my chart (and cussed).

Now I just need to get it into an electronic format so I am not dependent on this one piece of paper to remember my cable. I am also thinking of tweaking it some more... I have one or two more variations of it I am considering. I am not sure they would work out just right, but you never know until you chart, do you?

Shmom the Fabulous!

Yesterday, the sweater shmom made for shmoo arrived. She decided that it would be cool if she did the knitting and I did the finishing. That way I could have some part in the making of the sweater without actually making it. I thought that was a really cool idea.

Since she has no blog for me to point you towards, She knit "Lucky" from Knitty's men's (August 05) issue. It's a mistake rib stitch pattern. And oh my people, mistake rib is SO STRETCHY! The sweater even fits me, and I am at least 4 inches wider than the chest size stated for the size we used. She used KnitPicks, Wool of the Andes, in Maple Syrup. No idea how much, probably whatever the pattern says.

So she finished it up, did the neckline but left everything unseamed and sent it to me. I have sewed the pieces together, and I love it. Hopefully I can get a picture of the model wearing his sweater sometime soon, so you can see it as well.

As for the pattern, I want to say she said it was easy and went quickly. I can say for sure it wasn't hard to seem at all. I think it will look great on shmoo!

And of course, I have decided he needs a new hat to go with his new sweater. 3 braid cable and rib. And stripes! I am making it up as I go along.

I am using the leftover skeins of Maple Syrup that I have already joined and balled. I am also using leftovers. Brownsheep Prairie Silk, Guilder Green and Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Chocolate Souffle, size 8 needles, 96 stitches.

And now, on to the felted bag! This thing is an albatross. I have washed it 3 times already, and it's not shrinking down enough. It's way to tall. It's more of a flat tall bag than a shorter wide bag like I fell in love with.

Seen here with the strap I am still struggling to finish, this bag is just not what I envisioned. I am already planning and making changes in my head for another one, more like what I wanted. At least if it doesn't turn out right, I won't have been following a pattern of someone else's making. In the meantime, I'll keep washing at this thing, finish the strap, decide whether or not to felt it, and put it on the gift pile until it tells me to whom it should belong.

Yesterday I worked on Danica some more. Entrelac is so... easy and oddly satisfying. The scarf looks mostly the same as the last picture I took, so I won't post another 'til it's done. In the meantime, my shmoo still needs that new matching hat! :)

On a slightly knitting related side note, I have a World of Warcraft toon named Entrelac, it's our banking toon so it's in the main city most of the time. Yesterday someone messaged me and said, "Your name is a knitting term, did you know that?" My response was, "Yes, in fact, I have another toon named 'Intarsia' as well." This person proceeded to ask if I knit, I said yes, then they asked if I was British, not sure why..... *shrug* She(?) asked if I spun as well, I said no, and she said she did, and that she loved spinning and dyeing. That was about the sum of our conversation, but I thought it was funny.

Cracked.

I finally did it. I finally broke down and went to bloglines. They have a Konfabulator Widget. I couldn't help myself.

It will also be easier to keep track of blogs I read and not waste their bandwidth while I am at it.

So with the exceptions of the Sucky Knitting Girls and the blogs that don't have a feed.... Everyone I read is now listed on bloglines and I am just linking to the feed list there.

Woo! A shorter sidebar is born!

Also, my love Paton's Classic Elite Merino for Aran Rose came in. It's nice, and my goodness the skeins are rather largish. I am determined to finish that stupid strap and some other UFOs before I start it however.

Progress, of sorts.

I swear, I am never going to get this stupid strap for this stupid felted bag done. EVER! I am so tired of this funky I-cordish thing. I am about...35 inches in out of 90. And it's all I have knit on since Tuesday. Perhaps if I just keep plugging away, I'll get it done. Perhaps not, but it is all that the felting job is waiting on, so it's holding up the works.

Waves of Relief.

After hours of angst, and talking to shmoo, who was great and supportive the whole time, I cracked and called my mama! She was great and supportive too, and after I stressed out on her and started crying, she said, "Let me talk to [shmoo]!" (It really upsets mom when I cry, so now that is her new thing, talking to shmoo while I am upset. They agree on things, and then I can relax and know that the important people in my life agree I am not making a huge mistake by following my instincts instead of my ingrained Responsible Gene.)

So I made the decision to decline. When I called this morning, the interviewer (who was great btw..) asked if I minded telling him why, and I said no, and I did. I told him I thought that there was no clear definition of what the position is and everyone on the Executive Committee seems to have a different vision. I told him I didn't like being pressured to commit to programming on software I had never seen, and that I felt like my integrity was questioned. I also told him he may want to check on the tech consultant with another tech consultant, or at least tell him to password their open wireless. And then I said, knowing what I knew about their network, and then being questioned by this man, like I was lying about my skill base was very upsetting. He said he more than understood, and he had been thinking about it last night as well, and thought I would lean towards the decision I made. He also said that he was embarrassed about the way things were handled yesterday. That made me feel better, like I wasn't imagining things or being overly sensitive.

It's a shame really, the guy that interviewed me was a really nice guy. He loves his job, and the company, and he is willing to invest in the people already working there instead of just replacing them out of hand. That was something I really liked. Traits like that aren't easily found these days.

But I have to say, after having made the call, and speaking calmly about why I have come to my decision, I feel SO MUCH BETTER! Clean! Happy! Relieved!

Thank you all for your words of advice and encouragement. It helped tremendously.

Decision Time.

I have been offered the job I applied for. They have offered me everything I asked for. But.... I am still unsure about accepting. I said I would call with my response in the morning.

I have reservations about accepting. I feel like they have more issues than they are telling me about, and want me to come in and wave my magic wand and solve them all. And I can't. And I was very honest with them today when they asked about more advanced things. I haven't even seen the software they are using yet, told them I am entirely unfamiliar with it, and they still wanted me to promise them the moon. I didn't.

And at one point, their consultant tech guy absolutely pissed me off. He wanted me to answer questions he didn't know how to ask. I think he is snowing them about how much he knows about things and didn't want to get busted. He brought me a page of supposedly raw EDI, but it wasn't and I said so. And then he was asking about the segments, and I told him the ones I remembered off the top of my head. And when he asked what kind of document it was, I immediately told him the number and official name for it right off, and then he said ok that was all. Then the guy trying to hire me had to go to meet with him and some of the other Executive committee suits to discuss whether or not they wanted to offer me the job.... again.

I was furious. I made it clear what I could and could not do. I don't lie. I won't make promises about software I haven't seen and a job description you can't be clear on. Furthermore, it was all I could do not to bust the guy's networking skills in front of everyone once he pissed me off. I just smiled, and played nice until I got out of there, but now I have a bad taste in my mouth about the whole thing.

And part of me says, "screw it, take the job, if it doesn't work out, leave." And the other part says, "they want more than they are telling you. What they want should cost them at least 50k, minimum, to start, and that's not you."

And I am supposed to decide this by in the morning? I think I will have to call and postpone another day or so because at this moment, I just don't know.

Your Knitting Style Sucks!

That's the tongue-in-cheek motto for our brand-spanking-new Columbia Knitting Group. It was great! I had such a good time meeting everyone. It's cool to meet people that you had no idea were so local to you that share your interests. Poor shmoo, I was a little late getting back because I just kept blabbling, and he wasn't worried....yet. Had I been 10 minutes later getting home, he would have started calling.

It was great fun dishing about the LYSs and who had the best deals and the nicest staff. I learned a lot. I am always wanting the best deal and the nicest staff when I want to spend my money, so I filed tons of information away for later.

If you want to check out who else was there, their blogs are listed in the sidebar under "Columbia Knit Nighters." Otherwise, you can just take my word that Coleen, Sarah, Lolly, Amie, and Eunny are all great people. I look forward to the next meet up!

Knitting Podcasts.

I was going to do a review today on what I thought about several of the knitting podcasts our there. But I have changed my mind. Generally speaking, I don't like most of them, and those people are really putting themselves out there and I wouldn't want my opinion to discourage them, or anyone else who wants to podcast about knitting.

But I will say this. If the podcast plays music in it, I don't like it. This mostly means that I usually only listen to "Knit Cast". And today, I was going to recommend "The Knitting News" as a good podcast that didn't make me cringe or my brain bleed out my ears. In fact, I was even getting ready to subscribe to this podcast, but listened to the archived ones first.

Well, someone went and screwed it up. They told her she needed to liven it up and play music. WTF? Aren't there enough people out there playing "pod-safe" music that I don't want to hear? (*cough* Cast On *cough*) In fact, the semi decent podcast named "About Time" almost made my I-possibly-could-listen-to-this-every-month list, but.. SHE TOO PLAYS MUSIC.

Why people? Why? Why must you encourage people I want to actually want to hear speak, play music? If I wanted music, I'd turn on the freaking radio. I want knitting content. NOT MUSIC! I want to hear about what these people are knitting, or tips and techniques, or interviews with designers. (Knit Cast pretty much has this last one covered.)

As my frustration with the knitting podcast community grows, I really want to make this clear.

To all of you who do knitting podcasts, or who are thinking about it:

It's not that I don't want to hear what you have to say. I do. It's that I am not going to stick around to hear you say it when you keep playing music that I can get elsewhere on my own. If you want to do a music podcast, then do that, but when you say it's about knitting, well, that's what I want it to be about.

Curses, Foiled Again!

I moved the shawl to my US 5 Bryspuns, but my goodness that join is horrible!!

So I started over on US 1s. I like the fabric better, and the lace pattern is more apparent over all. So I have trucked along.... And am now at the same place I was before, Row 19.

As I was completing Row 19, disaster struck. One of my US 1 Addi Natura circulars snapped! The one in my right hand to be specific. Right at the join of the bamboo and the metal. *Sigh.* *Cuss.* *Mutter.* I suppose I wanted to go to the LYS today after all, I just didn't realize it.

Hrmm..... I have some metal sock dpns, perhaps I can use those without going crazy.

EDITED TO ADD:

Further Frustraions.

I am now on row 32 of chart 2, and it's going along fine, but there are other problems cropping up with this KAL, and I have decided that instead of stirring up the list, I will just say them here, in my space, where no one is forced to observe my opinion unless they seek to do so.

There were problems with MS2. The charts were wrong several times. Many little errors here and there. The designer polled if people would be willing to pay a small fee in order to participate, and most said yes, but it was clear that if paying, they would want to be able to see the finished product first if they so chose, and they would also want no errors in the charts, and none of the problems that had occured with MS2.

And thus MS3 begins. And we all paid $3 dollars this time just to participate. And we are able to view the final product, and it IS indeed beautiful. But the charts have errors. The charts have errors because the designer uploaded the wrong charts.

Now then, here is where the ranting begins.

The fucking charts are wrong... again! I ( and currently 214 people besides the designer) paid $3 dollars to test knit this damn lace shawl. I JUST FREAKING PAID SOMEONE TO TEST FREAKING KNIT SOMETHING FOR THEM. She knew she had incorrect charts and uploaded the wrong ones. WHY would you keep charts that were incorrect? Why? And why wouldn't you check them before you upload them? Every time someone posts something they think is an error, many hours later, or the next day, she confirms it as correct, or says "oops sorry!"

And one lady on the list expressed her frustrations along the same lines as mine, and immediately someone responed about how the designer was doing us a favor letting us knit this shawl so cheaply, and how she's available to us at any time, and we should be more appreciative, blah blah blah.

Excuse me? The last time I checked, you didn't pay people to test-knit their shit. They either ask you nicely because you are a friend, or they offer to pay you. So I don't feel appreciative about all this. At this point, I am irritated and grumpy about the whole thing. I have paid $3 bucks for something that, while lovely, is flawed. And to get an unflawed copy of this pattern, I have to pay another 3.50 once all this crap is over, for a total of $6.50. And I am test-knitting. And I am frustrated because she even promised before we got started that she was knitting from these very same charts herself and there would be no problems with them. So far there have been 9. And I have to replace my Addi Naturas.

And this is only the first week.

At this point, I think I am done with MS3. I will do some other lace pattern that doesn't make me want to cry in frustration, and write off my lost 3 bucks and the cost of new addis. I have not given up on lace, just on this KAL.

Mystery Shawl 3 Begins

Today was the first clue. At this moment, I am on Chart 2, Row 17. I knit lace so very very slowly. It's almost painful. I am enjoying myself however and that is what counts. I have a nice stretched out picture, courtesy of shmoo's hands. He's a sweet boy for being so co-operative whilst I was taking the picture. Actually, he humors my knitting very well.


So far the only modifications are In chart 1, Row 5, I added a YO to correct some math issues between charts, which 10 minutes later was corrected in a new chart, but I didn't want to start completely over. I used Emily Ocker's circular cast on method, and it's so damn fiddley with dpns right when you first get going. I wasn't going to go through it a third time if I could help it.

I also modified chart 2 row 13 because the symmetry was off and it felt wrong. I just made the left side mirror the right side and kept going.

This is my first time doing a lace pattern with a lace yarn, and the first time I have used a life-line, but I feel it's necessary. Hopefully, I won't need them and will just cut them out when I am done.

I have 46 rows left before this first chart is complete. But so far, I am pleased with the pattern.

Project: Not a failure after all

Ok so yesterday, I boiled that damned hat. BOILED IT. No shrinking. I washed it with a load of jeans on hot. No shrinking. Finally, in desperation, I threw it in the dryer with the jeans. At last! It shrunk right back up to it's original size. YIPPEEE! But now I have to get the lint off of it.
Here is my lovely model, lint and all.

I the mean time, Hello Interweave Knits Spring 2006! I love finding you in my mailbox. What I really loved, was the picture of the sweater on the back in the add for Classic Elite's new book, Boathouse. OMG! I want! It's....lovely.

As for inside the mag, I liked the following, but of course that is no guarantee I'll get around to making them, I still haven't made the other things on my list from older IKs.

The Caftan Pullover (page 26). I love the way it looks. I love that it's written in my size and I don't have to play the "MathGame" with it. I don't quite like how low it goes and I hate moss stitch, but damn the detailing on this thing is F-I-N-E fine.

Trellis Scarf (page 56). Another little lace item. But I like the way it looks, and the pattern even uses Knit Picks yarn so I wouldn't have to dream up a substitution.

Aran Rose (page 60).Wow. I LOVE this sweater. Shmoo said he likes it as well. Direct Quote: "That's very nice." It isn't in my size, so MathGame it is. But I do love it. I might even make it in pink!

Simply Lovely Lace Socks (page 64). Ohh so cute! And they look great for spring and summer. Unfortunately all the sock yarn I have is variegated or in manly dark shmoo colors, so this would mean acquiring more yarn. Something I am trying to stay away from right now. But I will certainly keep them in mind for future socking.

prairie Tunic (page 88). I like this a lot. Clean, simple, but nice details. Also, no MathGame for it either. On the downside, I would need a strapless bra, because while the back detailing is really nice, there's not much in the way of straps going on. Also I feel like it would just show too much chubby skin, and that's just not attractive. So while I like it, I don't really see it getting knitted up any time this decade.

And that's it. My summary of IK Spring 06 is complete.

Also, today I have a job interview. I hope I end up liking it. I am not worried so much about the interview. More about if I will actually like the job if I get it. I also hope the company is receptive to ideas, because I already have a few for it. We shall see.

It's always best to let sleeping dogs lie, don't you think?

EDIT: Interview went really well. And Joann's is having a sale on Patton's Classic Merino wool. The yarn called for in the Aran Rose pattern in IK spring 06. AND.. free shipping from the code on the front of the website. I ordered the yarn to do this sweater, even got the same color. I think this is the first time ever I have not subbed. Woohoo.