Loving My Loppem

When Norah Gaughan, vol. 3 came out- I knew right away that I wanted to make a Loppem, a Calvert, and an Eastlake, and they moved into positions 1, 2, & 3 in my Ravelry Queue... With short sleeves and a worsted weight gauge, I figured I'd start off with a lovely little Loppem. I was thinking a dark green or brown but then got to thinking about how some splashes of color can do a wardrobe good, and how I had 5 skeins of Blue Sky Alpacas Worsted Hand Dyes in a lovely blue sitting in my stash (I'm normally not one to knit in the color I see in the pattern, but hey, with my pale skin, I wear blue well, and it's not black or brown...)

The pattern calls for six 50 gr balls of Berroco Palace, with each 50 gr ball having approx 103 yards of yarn. Well, I had five 100 gr hanks of yarn- more than enough, or so my non-thinking brain thought that day. 50 gr vs. 100 gr. No contest, surely I'd have extra yarn. Um, maybe, except for the fact that my 100 gr hanks of Blue Sky Worsted had about 100 yds each!!! (Can we say density? Blue Sky's Worsted is a meaty kind of yarn! It feels so good on, trust me on this one, it's like wrapping in a blanket.)

I started getting nervous as I neared the end of the second skein and my sweater looked about 1/3 done... um, that was because it was about 1/3 done- I was gonna need 6 hanks.

I also need to mention that I was using yarn from a very old dye-lot, one I couldn't get my hands on anymore. Hmmm, what to do? Send out a desparate cry for help on Ravelry? It almost came to that... when I remembered a long forgotten pair of socks, unfinished worsted socks, unfinished because they weren't going to fit, gauge was too tight. I frogged about 10 inches of old knitting (knee highs...) and rewound my sweater-saving 6th ball of blue, of which I probably used less than half. What am I going to do with about 60 yds of blue worsted? It will probably end up a stripe in something, or maybe some cat's cradle play for several young people I know... That doesn't matter- what matters now is that I get to wear my Loppem!

(pic from last week, 37 week baby belly)

*** lesson learned- check yardage! ***

Our weather is just starting to turn cool enough to want and even need a layer of woolly, alpaca-y, warmthness, and I am definitely going to enjoy this knit in the next many weeks and months- I do live in Minneosota, remember?

Are you knitting something special for this next season? I hope so.

Happy knitting-

ali

PS-Baby Countdown Details

• 'due' in 14 days
• low back and hips feeling it today
• new car seat is in
• still need a new crib
• cleaning room & organizing baby clothes this weekend
• gathered relaxing music for labor
• slowly easing back on coffee...