Go go garter stitch!

Well, I’ve started another project while I wait for my needles to arrive for Icarus. I ordered them from Knit Picks, and even if sometimes it takes awhile for things to arrive from there you really can’t beat the prices and the free shipping—of course I had to order more than just needles to get to $45, but still ;)

A few weeks ago I mentioned I treated myself to some yarn for my birthday. I was lucky enough to nab some Malabrigo for $6 a skein at the Knit2Purl2.com sale earlier this month. I had to substitute some colorways due to stock issues, but thankfully I was able to get 5 skeins for an EZ Tomten Jacket for Camdyn (though unfortunately the rest of my order didn’t fair so well).

I have four skeins in Purple Mystery, a deep bluish purple, and one skein in Orchid, a lavender color with hints of pink and white in places. I’m hoping I will have more than enough yarn than I need. One thing that I’m finding hard to get used to as I read through my Elizabeth Zimmerman books is the lack of yardage requirements. After looking around on Ravelry and searching the net I made a guesstimate that I hope is right!

I did a quick gauge swatch and cast on for this jacket on Monday. So far it has been pleasurable and leisurely knitting. This yarn is SO soft I want to treasure every minute working with it. I don’t think I’ve ever knit with anything so luscious. I can certainly see why so many of you chose this as your favorite yarn when we posed the question months ago. I’m actually kind of jealous that Camdyn will be the one enjoying this delicious softness come wintertime, but my little girl deserves the best.

Right now I’m to the point where I’m about to put the stitches for the sleeves on waste yarn. I still haven’t quite decided how I’m going to incorporate the contrast color into this jacket yet. Maybe I’ll add it on the shoulders and as an applied i-cord border around the whole jacket? What do you think?