Marco Polo

The Marco Polo yarn finally arrived from Patternworks last week. I've made good progress, and have finished the back of the Raglan T-Shirt Sweater I'm knitting for Mom.
This yarn is very different. I realized I didn't include a close up shot, which isn't very helpful. It is a cotton yarn, with a gold thread plied around it, and the whole thing encased in a fine nylon tube, like pantyhose! It is very smooth makes a nice defined stitch. It feels pleasant to knit with. It is not a hard wearing yarn, I can already tell. It snags on anything the least bit rough. Liberal use of hand cream and the emery board is essential. I have had to tie off every end, or it unravels in a long,long,long nylon thread. You know how annoying it is to be knitting along and encounter a knot in the yarn? This yarn hasn't had any knots, but it does have damaged areas were the nylon is torn, and there is nothing to do but stop and cut out the damaged section and rejoin the yarn. Much worse than knots. I think I'll to caution Mom not to wear and jewelry with prongs and such that would snag the yarn when she wear the finished sweater.

This is Chelsea, my parents dog, posing with the Marco Polo yarn. My own dog, Missy, is very camera shy and refused to pose. Chelsea is quite the prima donna and allowed me to place the yarn on her chair and photograph her.











And here is the first of the Cascade Fixation socks completed and blocking. I have a good start on the second sock as well, thanks to having to wait one hour and fifteeen minutes in line to get my driver's license renewed. I don't know how non-knitters stand it. There is no way I could have stayed in that line without my knitting to pass the time. This is the Broadripple sock pattern from Knitty.

One final note: South Beach diet is working, I'm down 8 pounds. Guess I had better stick with it.