I did it!

I jumped in, abandoned all reason, and bought two skeins of beautiful Cashmere Sock Yarn by ArtYarns from Webs.  It's truly wonderful stuff ~ I just hope I bought enough!  Expensive, yes, but this friend deserves the best and I am not going to skimp on this project.  Here it is, in all its glory:

The colors in the photo are pretty true to real life - I love the subtle shading in the yarns.  It's producing some really neat variations in the knitted fabric, too:

Right now some stripe-y effects but we'll see how it looks over all once it's done.  I am MUCH happier with this project!  These are going to be a gift I will be happy to give.  They're not going to be very long in the leg, though, as I am watching with some alarm as the ball quickly diminishes as I go along.  I am kicking myself for not using a toe-up method but now that it's begun I don't want to rip it out.  I've never done toe-up socks before so I just didn't even think about it until I realized that my little ball of yarn seemed to be shrinking more quickly than I was hoping.  I may end up making a slightly panicked trip back to Webs to buy more...but we'll see.  I'll keep you up to date on the progress so you can see how it goes.  I did stop at Northampton Wools, too, but didn't see anything there that really caught my fancy for this project.  Plus, Webs had some lovely Kid Seta from Cascade Yarns on Closeout sale and I was planning to get some of that, too.  I did, but will wait to tell you about that some other time 'cause I really want to get back to these socks..... I need to have them done for the second weekend in July so there's not a minute to waste!

Moving on....

I've decided to abandon the Big Softie project for now and move on to another yarn.  Every time I look at that finished sock the though of giving it to the person I was making it for makes me feel bad, and I find myself avoiding working on it.  I'm taking that as a sign that I need to do something different.  I'll finish the other sock and keep them around here - I think, maybe, that they would make good socks to wear while I'm weaving in the winter.  That being said, I am off to Webs (http://www.yarn.com/) and, possibly, Northampton Wools (http://www.northamptonwools.com/).  I've never been to Northampton Wools, so it will be a new experience.  I'll let you know how it goes and post pictures of what I get.  Wish me luck!