I've never wanted a swift more in my life. I just spent entirely too long trying to turn my skein of Cascade 220 into a center pull ball so I can cast on for my felted slippers. The yarn is a beautiful purple/blue color (not sure if you can tell with the camera phone photo) and I can't wait to make it into snuggly footwear. I read somewhere that, after felting, I should shape them on my feet and then make sure they dry that way.
As you can tell from the pictures, I did go to the yarn store on Friday in preparation for my travels. I bought two skeins of gorgeous Cascade 220, one of those Clover thread cutters in lieu of my usual scissors, and three skeins of Cascade Encore Worsted (one maroon, one gray, and one neutral).
The Vegas Scarf. My husband requested maroon and okayed gray so I should have known better than to buy a third color. When he got out of work, he told me that two colors would be good. Hmmm...when you buy three skeins of yarn for a project and can only use two you run into a slight problem. As of today, the balls are still pretty big but I called the LYS to ask if they have extras in my color/lot. They definitely have the gray, but the only maroon they have left is sans ballband so I'll bring my yarn with me to compare. The colors really look great in person even though they didn't come out too well online.
I knitted away for about 5 hours over the weekend (almost entirely on the plane ride to Vegas) and made each stripe about 1.5" wide. I think we both like the wrong side better than the right side but we'll see; that little line that happens when you change colors is kind of cool. He kept looking at my progress and smiling at me.
I had no problem bringing my knitting on the plane. Both times, my carry-on went through security without a glitch. On the way home, my SIL got stopped. No, she wasn't carrying scissors, pointy metal objects, or liquid make-up. She had one of those magnets shaped like a bottle and she wasn't allowed to bring it on the plane because it had liquid in it. Who would have thought! It was still wrapped in bubble wrap and in the gift shop bag, but apparently that wasn't enough for them. They called the supervisor over and he said that she could't bring it with her unless it was sealed in a bag. So...my knitting saved the day! I had my notions in a ziplock bag that I gladly handed over.
By the way, Las Vegas was great. I couldn't get over the hotels and am proud to say that I actually won some money! Only $30 but that's enough to buy myself some yarn. ;)
