New Yarn!

For my birthday, my friends Anju and Naomi gave me a gift certificate to Loop, my favourite LYS.  I'd been there once on a scouting trip, but I finally went there last week determined to buy something.  The thought that I might leave town before having a chance to spend it was too much to bear!  (Fellow crafters will understand this feeling, I'm sure.)

The scouting trip was a little disappointing because I really wanted to use my gift certificate on something I wouldn't ordinarily buy - something new, something different, something I haven't bought before.  But the two workers who were there on my scouting trip (who I love dearly, btw) both have the same taste in yarn that I do.  Not helpful for my mission.

When I went this week, however, I got a different worker (one I also love but rarely see because she's not there on days I'm usually there) and I was able to see with new eyes, so to speak.  I got a yarn that has fibres I still love, but it's a yarn that I've never had before, I've not worked with these fibres in this combination, and I'm excited to get started!

I bought a yarn called Road to China Light (they also have a worsted, but I bought the sport weight).  It's 65% alpaca, 15% silk, 10% cashmere, and 10% camel.  What's not to love about that combination?  It's soft, soft, soft, and then soft some more.  I just could NOT stop touching it.

So then the next question was figuring out which colour I wanted.  Which begged the question: What did it want to be when it grew up.  Not too long ago, one of the designers on the Free Pattern Testers board I moderate on Ravelry had posted a pattern for this Half Patent Checkerboard Scarf (or Silk Scarf Narrative, whichever one you want to call it; it's a free Ravelry download) that I really loved.  The pattern isn't difficult, and I love that motif.  But I didn't have the right yarn for it.  Technically, it calls for DK, and Road to China Light is a sport, but it's a scarf, so who cares.

I figured out who I wanted to give the scarf to, and then I chose the colour.  It's a really rich blue.  Yum.

I believe she'll be happy.

Thanks, Anju and Naomi!

Bonus - I still have a wee bit left on the gift certificate - sweet!