It followed me home...

Actually, *they* followed me home. First, the skirt [bias-cut, tiered, with tucks above each tier, in a brown/black/grey/cream irregular plaid, marked down $20 plus I had a 40% off coupon] and the top [tunic length, decorative stitching at the neck, and also on sale; I bought this one in taupe and another in a medium mossy green]. That was Tuesday night. I wore this to work yesterday. And after work, as it’s been quite a week, I hied meself to the LYS to show off the Monkeys-in-progress and to see if they had sock yarn that would coordinate, and 8/0 beads for my MS3.

Remember the lacy hose of 20 years ago? I do, fondly. We were so broke back then, poor as Job’s turkeys, that I could only afford a couple of pairs. And wept when they wore out. I would love to have a nearly-solid lace pattern in cream or ecru to wear with this. So it was with that in mind that I went to the LYS and uttered the magic words, “Do you have anything that would match this?” Before the shop owner and I had walked the ten feet to the knitting table, one of her staff had reached over 18 inches to the left and come up with this:



Is she brilliant, or what? I commented to my friend Punkin that the OnLine she’d bought looked a lot like my Ditto [or vice versa]. Now she can see for herself! The shop owner showed me a picture of the yarn knitted up. It’s my first self-patterning yarn, and I think its dark Faux-Isle-ishness will work nicely with the skirt. I bought three skeins so that I could make them gloriously long.

Here’s a close-up:



That’s not blue in the middle of the skirt. It’s a wonderful clear grey, and this plaid has some black in it as well as multiple shades of brown. I have an old silk scarf that’s a standby, and I wore it yesterday. The taupe circles exactly match the top.

I’m one of those people who carries colors in her head, and it only works if I’m *not* trying to match something. If I buy something because I love it, it will go with several items that I already have. If I deliberately try to match something then it will clash like the Hatfields and McCoys.

I will spare you a picture of the two skeins of Jitterbug in “Leaf” that I brought home last night to go with my green slacks and the new top. So dissonant are they that it makes my fillings hurt; I will be taking them back on my lunch hour and exchanging them for something more seemly. And I will be taking the new shirt with me when I go. I was thinking of something like the Swallowtail Shawl, just a waft of lace across my shoulders and the nape of my neck.

Am nearly done with the gusset on Monkey 2; took it with me to the recumbent bike and had to rip out every stitch I put in while pedaling. And then I zigged when I should have zagged at lunch or on one of my breaks yesterday, and I had to do more frogging. But we're back on track again, and I’ll probably start work on the straightaway on both socks sometime today. Jeri was kind enough to bring her scale on Tuesday night, and I had 39.01 g left to work with. So I either just will or just won’t have enough to finish the socks. I want to get cracking on the Faux Isles.