withdrawal?

Yesterday evening I almost made a few really silly purchases. Okay, some of the purchases I almost made weren't quite that silly, but perhaps a bit unthought out. (For example, I almost bought a mitten kit from Nordic Fiber Arts. It would have been a good purchase, but I'm not sure that would fulfill my colorwork cravings, so I'm glad I didn't buy it.) One of the really stupid things I almost did was buy yarn from Knitpicks for a sweater from Sweaters From Camp, trying to guess what colors would be the best approximation for J&S substitutes. Hah! I know from many online sources to not trust the colors on the screen from the Knitpicks site. I eventually calmed down from this colorwork craving frenzy, and decided to just order a few Knitpicks color cards. I found a free shipping code, because otherwise I don't think I'd be able to stomach paying shipping for a few $1.50 color cards. I ordered the cards for Palette, Wool of the Andes, and Merino Style. Palette is the yarn I'll use if I decide to order the yarn for the sweater, but I thought it might be nice to have those other color cards for future reference.



The yarn I'm thinking of ordering the Palette for, assuming my NSS doesn't come any time soon, is the Traditional Fair Isle Jumper, designed by Joyce Williams, found in Sweaters From Camp. I think it's one of the nicest designs in the book. I already have some preliminary gauge and sizing concerns (will I get close to 7 stitches but 9 rows per inch? Who wears a 39" drop sleeve sweater with 20" sleeves, besides a baby orangutan?), but I'm trying not to let them get to me too much. If nothing else, ordering those color cards might make my cone of Naturespun magically appear. Or perhaps that will wait until I actually order the yarn for this sweater, assuming I can create a colorway I like with Palette's relatively limited palette. There are actually a few other sweaters in the book, and some in another book, that I may consider ordering yarn for if I can't get together a good colorway for this sweater. But if I don't stop talking about possibilities, this post will be about 10 pages long in no time.

This is all a big gamble, of course. I really don't know if I'll like Palette enough to use it for a sweater I love. But I suppose that's part of the reason I'm thinking of using it for a sweater I merely love, as opposed to a sweater I'm fanatically obsessed with. It doesn't matter if Palette turns out to be God's magical pubic hair. I'm still going to use J&S for the Autumn Color Cardigan. :-)

P.S. Check out this knitted tree cozy. Brings a whole new meaning to tree hugger!