Do I know hand painted yarn? Not remotely. But I downloaded the SpaceCadet’s Launching into Hand dyed pdf, and more hands on, I won a give away!

Amy of Getoffmylawndesigns.com gave me a copy of her Tangerine Triffle, and a skein of Ella Rae lace merino. I’m beginning to get my web aquaintances’ lace merino obsessions.

It fits in my purse.

It bounces when I drop it. Somehow that’s adorable.

It doesn’t feel hot, it’s almost cotton like in that regard, but I don’t have to use a tight tension, and it’s not slippery.

The colors are like jewels.

The yarn overs are crisp, and it’s just on my needles, not blocked yet.

Amy’s pattern is clear and cheerful, with good photographs; inspiring, but not artistically fuzzy. I fudged the cast on a bit by estimating what 500 stitches looked like, then dropped the extra stitches off the needle when I did the set up row. I think next time I’d put a maker on for each repeat to make sure I was setting it up right, I was off by half a repeat, but the yarn from the ‘extra’ stitches was still there, so I cast on some more. It will have to do, I’m not frogging a second time.

I planned for this to be my Sunday knitting – I don’t want to be trying to meet a photography deadline on samples on a Sunday, I need that day to be different from other days, more for my benefit than the Lord’s. But since it’s so small, and in my purse, I’ve put a few stitches in at the play ground and doctor’s offices too.

It’s better than a tin of mints!