Fair Isle Swatching

Six months ago I would never had dreamed that I'd have the Fair Isle bug, but I've been bitten. Fingerless mitts seem like a good knitted Christmas gift. Not a huge investment of time, practical for the recipient and I can make them from my stash. I enjoyed the Stulpens so I searched Ravelry for other fingerless mitt patterns and there they were Eunny Jang's End Paper Mitts.

Step one: Go to Ravelry find the pattern and queue it. Own the project.

Step two: While on Ravelry, check your stash and study your options.

Step three: Annouce your intent at knit night. I was so happy to hear Jeri wanted to knit the End Paper mitts too. With little persuasion, Rebecca jumped on board and we decided to have a fall KAL. All the Sisters are invited to join in the fun.

Step four: Get back on Ravelry and study other people's FO, WIP and UGHs. Figure out what you like and what you don't.

Step five: Swatch. Yup, I'm gonna do it. Not for gauge, although that will be a side benefit, but to see which color goes where and to be 100% sure this is a project I want to tackle.

The pink swatch is finished and I do want to do this project. First, I did grey with pink (bottom.) This is the way it's been coming together in my head and when I saw the results, I thought for sure I had a winner. I went ahead with the pink with grey swatch anyway (top.) Wait a minute, I kind of like this too. I'm not any closer to making a decision that before I swatched. In fact, I may be more confused.

The swatch went pretty fast. I did two of the three repeats of the pattern needed for the cuff of the mitt and finished in one night of unrushed knitting.

Lisa Models the Stulpens

The Stulpens look even better on. I'm excited that they are such a nice fit.

Lovin' The Shabby Sheep

My sister was in town last weekend and we did a small 2 store yarn shop crawl.


My usual stop is the Shabby Sheep. Ronda is so nice and she knows me, calls me by name and makes me feel welcome. More than that, I like the yarns she carries. At any given point in time, I can walk in the store and love 95% of the inventory. The other 5% is baby yarn. It's just not where I'm at.


Jeannie liked the selection too, but it merely whetted her appetite and she hadn't spent all her money. There are several more shops in the area so we headed toward one I've only been in once. Up to this point, I stayed away because it's "geographically undesirable." But this was a special occasion.


When we got to the other store* we were overwhelmed with the selection. It's probably double what's at the Sheep, stacked floor to ceiling - literally to the ceiling. They had a nice selection of popular yarns. I found several things I liked. At the same time, I waded through a bunch of yarn which was not my taste. I'd say 33% of the inventory fit my taste the other 66% just got in my way and overwhelmed me. See the * below, this is not a negative critic of this store.


It's kind of like dating around before settling down. I was sowing my wild knitting oats. What I realized is, the Shabby Sheep has what I need.

It is so good to know the store closest to me, with the greatest staff is also the store that's the best fit for me.


*I'm specifically not naming the other store because it is not my intent to give it a bad review. It's a great store, I just have more in common with Ronda's taste.

DS and I had a great time.