What's Going On Here?

Here's a picture of some worsted weight, pretty Burnt Orange wool from KnitPicks, called Elegance. It is 70% Baby Alpaca, 30% silk, and babee, it's sweet. It is so incredibly soft. I can't wait to knit with this yarn! No, really. I can't wait. So I cast on for a swatch, knitted it up to the right gauge, or at least only a half of an inch off, which is the best I could do. I'm hoping that's okay. Then, following the good advice of the Yarn Harlot, http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/, I took my little swatch to the sink and hand-washed it. Originally, the swatch was 3.25 inches tall and 6.5 inches wide. After the wash, it was 3.25 inches tall and 7.25 inches wide. It had widened 3/4 of an inch. Yikes! This is good to know. I'm glad I listened to a professional. Now what to do? I could knit a smaller size and hope. That's what I would have done a couple of years ago. Now, however, there's not that much time in my life to throw away on something that won't work. Besides, I really want to wear this yarn. So, my mom had the best idea that would work, which was to prewash every skein to get the sizing out. This will work, won't it? So I have been unwinding. Today I will place these unwound skeins in the bathtub for a swish and a wish. Then, after they have dried, I'll knit another swatch, wash that, and see what happens. This should work. I have to wear this soft-y yarn. And just to make sure it was going to work with my lifestyle, I grabbed hold of my swatch and pulled. Yup, totally strong. Kid tugging proof. I'll let you know how this works out.

Speaking of the Yarn Harlot (I assume you know who she is), one of her books is how I discovered blogs. I like knitting, obviously, and I was in Borders, checking out the craft section. I picked up her meditations book, flipped through and started laughing out loud. Bought one for my friend Arleta, who would also appreciate the funny, and I also picked up Knitting Rules!: The Yarn Harlot's Bag of Knitting Tricks by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. On the back cover, they talked about her incredibly successful blog and gave the web site. Guess where I was for the next month??? I reread every post she ever did, and it was like reading a book online. It was highly enjoyable. Then I linked to someone she seemed to like, Enchanting Juno http://enchantingjuno.typepad.com/knit/. Wow. Very entertaining, also. Then Arleta started her blog, http://arletasmotleywool.blogspot.com/. I kept peeking at other people's links.... well, here I am, a couple of months later. I heard on NPR yesterday that an average of 70,000 new blogs are being created every day! See all of the people with something to say? Pretty cool, huh? Thanks, everyone, for putting your thoughts out there, and reading my thoughts, too. This is a very cool thing.