Monday, October 15, 2007

Final Lap

Only four days to go until we pack up the kiddies and head off to Rhinebeck! I'll most likely be finishing Emilie's sweater by Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, so that'll be no problem. Unfortunately, Phil will be finishing his kite tonight (I've got choir practice), so unless I secretly rip out his seams during the day (I would never!!! :P), I'm going to lose the bet.

Speaking of Rhinebeck (I swear, do I ever do anything else on this blog?), I'm having a bit of a dilemma concerning what (or specifically, how much) to buy. Here's the thing: even though I've been knitting off and on for over 20 years, I've only been a Knitter (with a capital "K") for about a year. All stash enhancement to this point has been with specific projects in mind, save for socks or other "one-skein" projects (like hats and scarves). Setting aside the fact that I've been buying far faster than I can knit, the fact remains that I don't really know how to buy without guidelines.

For instance, say I head on over to the Morehouse Farm booth at Rhinebeck. Now, from what I've read, Morehouse Merino is absolutely top notch. How much do I buy if I want to make a sweater for it in the future? Put in another way (cue Whitney Houston): How will I know????

So here's my question to my readers: how much yardage is usually required for sweaters? Cardigans? Shawls? Help? I run into the same problem when surfing the bargain bins in places like Elann. I spot something that seems like a genuine bargain, but then I think: How much do I buy? What will I use it for? Faced with these questions to which I have absolutely no answer for, I move on (see Kate, I don't buy everything!).

Needless to say, I'm really looking forward to next weekend. This yarn fast has been killing me! I mean, seriously, I found myself gazing longingly at the Bernat and Red Heart at Zellers yesterday! Can you say Yarn-a-holic?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wish I could offer guidance on the yarn purchasing query, but, after all, it's ME you're listening to here... :)
On the upside, the sweater is looking wonderful and maybe the kite will suffer last minute fray issues or something?

Mrhide said...

it's probably going to be a tie! oh the suspense! Please Maxime don't sleep! 3:>

Da-enabl-ar: I know where you live!

Jennifer Lori said...

Shoot, I wish I'd read this before today. Did you get an answer? There are guidelines, for example Ann Budd put out a little pamplet with approximate yarn requirements. I use that when I'm going somewhere new, otherwise if I'm somewhere like a yarn store, I ask them to find me a pattern with the similar gauge and figure out how much yarn that pattern says to use.