An Afternoon at the Yarn Shop

Today there was a sick husband at my house.  He was sick enough to stay home, but not sick enough to stop working.  So, if I stuck around, I knew I was in for an afternoon of watching him tap away on his laptop while talking on the phone to coworkers about whatever numbers they wanted to discuss.  It's not that I don't find accountant-type stuff fascinating, but I prefer the background noise of a knitting podcast or a good conversation, so I headed over to my LYS and worked on my current swatch for a couple hours while enjoying the company of one of the shop owners and the steady stream of customers who visited her this afternoon.  (Really, I was pleasantly surprised - I didn't think a Tuesday afternoon would be a hopping time at the yarn shop, but as it turns out, it was!)

Anyway, I'm swatching with Malabrigo sock yarn for a new idea for a summer top.  Sadly these photos don't do the "Solis" color way justice, it's much richer than it appears here.

This top is going to be partly stockinette and partly textured.  I played around with a couple stitch patterns I like - this first one kind of has an organic, vine-y thing going on....



And this one kind of looks like fish scales.  (Don't look too closely...it's a little messed up...took me a while to get the hang of it!)

I'll keep you in suspense about which one I decided I liked better for this pattern.  They both look nice, but I have a definite favorite, and when I asked the yarn shop owner and my husband which one they liked better (without letting them know what I thought), they both agreed with me.  So, hopefully, if you're in the mood to make a new top this summer, you'll agree with us, too!

In other news, I finished the pattern for the "Purp Hat" today.  I know that really shouldn't be the name for it (short for "Purple Hat", obvs.) but the more I refer to it that way, the more the name is sticking.  I should really pick a different name, but everytime I look at this hat, all I think is "Purp Hat".  I think that part of my brain is broken right now, so if you have any ideas, send them my way!  At any rate, I'm going to try my best to get the test knit for this posted tonight on Ravelry.  It's written in 3 sizes (18", 20", 22"), which is roughly (2/3 yrs, 6yrs - Adult S, Adult M, L) and uses between 330-558 yds of fingering-weight yarn.  (The yarn is held double, which is why it seems like way too much yarn!)