Finishing up a few projects means I get to buy more yarn! Yay!! Here are a few that I’ve wrapped up in recent months.

1. Cascade Pearls Shawl.

55.7% cotton, 44.3% viscose. Knit on size 6 circular bamboo needles purchased at a great little shop in Tucson, Kiwi Knitting Shop. Color 8176 (a very creamy, lustrous off white). Pattern is original (made up by moi).

I had no idea how many skeins I would need, so I bought every single ounce that my LYS(The Good Yarn) had in stock. I had about 5 yards left when I finished it. I was thrilled to get this yarn half price during owner, Deb’s, 1st anniversary sale. Here it is modeled on MY virtual assistant.

Can’t wait until Spring to be able to wear this one to all those baseball games at the University of Arizona! That means I’ll need to make a few nice summer dresses…

2. Purple wool sweater.

This is some unnamed mill end yarn purchased optimistically over 25 years ago at a now out-of-business yarn shop in Phoenix. It was just a big tangled plummy, marled mess and I couldn’t resist it. It took hours across two marriages just to untangle and wind into usable balls!

Finally started the sweater in about 2000 (Cabled polo-neck, a Vogue Pattern published by Reynolds Yarns, Inc. in 1979; pattern folder was purchased in Homewood, Illinois). As it took shape and I compared it with the changes in MY shape since the pattern was purchased, I felt it might end up being a gift for someone.

Happily, it fits! I know I’ll love wearing this. Since purple, black, denim blue, silver and lime green are the official colors of my business, Loose Ends, it’s going with me to MacWorld in San Francisco next week. (Ok, no one but me has five official colors. I know that.)

3. Crocheted bag.

Found this pattern on Priscilla’s Crochet Pattern Index at this link.

This is made from some very coarse material originating in Turkey or somewhere in that part of the world. I can’t guess what the content is, but it’s rough, like jute, so some kind of plant fiber rather than animal hair??

It was passed on to me by a friend. HER friend acquired it while traveling and then could never determine anything to make from it.

I held onto the yarn for two or three years, thinking I would eventually find a use for it. In fact, when someone paid me a compliment on the bag yesterday (a very young someone), I thanked her and told her I was glad I hadn’t been given this yarn in the 70’s, or it would surely have been used in a macramé something-or-other.

The search for the perfectly-suited pattern was worth it as this one is a good fit, even though I thought I had left crocheting in my past.

4. Still on needles for a few more hours is this little hat for Jocelyn.

Pattern: “Ela’s Favorite Hat,” from One Skein Wonders by Judith Durant. Modifying it for a birthday gift for a little one-year-old girl who spends a lot of time at Tahoe ski slopes.

Yarn (from the Good Yarn): leftovers from several other projects done in the winter of 2007 when I couldn’t get my fill of alpaca. Cascade’s Pastaza (50% llama and 50% wool), color 001 and Plymouth Yarn’s Baby Alpaca Grande Luxury Indiecita Brand color 1310.

When finished, that will be the end of a number of skeins of those two lovely yarns, which have previously been made into sweater and matching bell bottoms for Brenna, scarf for Marie, scarf for ME, felted project bag for me, and several headbands given as gifts to special people.

Up next, finish Tahki Jolie denim blue wrap sweater. Start Crayon Box sweater. All the yarn for that is collected in shades from deep wine to shell pink. Yum. Maybe a couple of pairs of socks???