Yes, I Made A Sweater Out of Novelty Yarn!

We all have our stories about the crazy yarns we bought when we started knitting, right?  Well I bought with the best of them, as you can see.  I remember squealing in glee when finding $1 balls of acrylic, dubious lots of 'unknown fiber' at Walmart, or mystery boxes of scary wool off Ebay.  I bought a lot of weird yarn when I started, and a lot of it was quite... well... furry?

Oh, did you just sneeze?  Have a tissue.  This, my friends, is the aptly named "Showstopper" from Ironstone yarns and it's made of 3 yarns plied together: a bulky mohair, an eyelash yarn, and a... um... "bling" yarn.  It's bulky, oh my god is it bulky.  I mean the gauge is 6 sts over 4 inches.  Yup, by just knitting 3 stitches you've already got 2 inches of knitting done, ha!  This yarn was bought as a gift for me years and years ago, and it was actually quite expensive.  This makes me laugh because compared to what I had been buying, it was the most expensive yarn I owned by far, and it still looked like what Chewbacca would wear to his birthday party!

I was determined to use it, even as my yarn snobbery continued its yearly escalation.  Actually, walking down the streets of Montreal these days I see that fake fur is IN FORCE!  I mean, people are looking mighty hairy, and not just because it was Movember.  It was high time to make a move.  I found a free pattern for really big needles from DROPS that used their own old school fur yarn called Fox.

Actually, now that I look at this she really has the Chewbacca color down pat.  ;)

Also, what was there to lose if the gauge was so big?  Truth be told, I finished the entire body in one devoted day.  To my surprise, I was really intrigued and decided to continue.

I never did a DROPS pattern before, it was a fine experience.  In fact, it has a really neat neckline.  At some point you do a few stitches in the center of the front in garter, and then start decreasing for the neck continuing in garter just for those stitches.  Very sweet.

I must admit, I had the idea that maybe I should shave the whole thing with hair clippers...   I suggested it to my friend and she freaked out "Nooooooo, doooooooooon't!"  In fact, I have been totally astounded at the compliments I have been getting on this hairy-maybe-scary piece.  I mean, people stop me on the street to say how cool it is... I guess the clippers and bikini wax will have to stay in the closet for now!

In other news, it is December 1st and I am quietly freaking out about the move.  This is why you're seeing more of me on Facebook than here, because I only seem to be able to focus on 1-line wonders!  Unfortunately, I didn't get the job I wanted.  Worse, I didn't find out in time to take advantage of another opportunity I had, so I am back to square zero (if that exists!).  There's collateral damage to this, because it seems like they can't give us the house loan until either I have a contract or we immigrate, which we aren't allowed to do until December 26 because of my husband's visa rules.  Drat!  The rather funny part is that they have to move everything out of the house on December 23 because of the holiday, meaning that we will have an interesting Christmas eating off of cardboard coffee tables and sitting on an air mattress!  Maybe I should make a tree out of packing materials, what do you think?

For those of you wondering about whether I am giving away any stash, DON'T GET YOUR HOPES UP!  :D  One of the perks of this move is that they are packing us up so I don't have to get rid of any of it!!!!  /evil laugh/

I'll be back very soon with a suggestion for the perfect holiday gift for your favorite knitter.  See you then!

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