Work in Progress Wednesday v.70

Greetings from the frozen land!  It got just north of 20 degrees farenheit here today (that's -7 celsius) and it felt like picnic weather.  Yesterday, it didn't get much past 3, which is really freaking cold regardless of the scale you use.  I had to knit just to keep warm.  Sacrifices...

Last week, Lorna Suzanne was just a tiny little seed of a sweater, and it looked like this:

Today, I'm about 2" from stopping at the armpits and knitting up the sleeves.  I LOVE this pattern.  I do not LOVE making these cute little berries in the lace.  They're kind of fiddly.  But I can totally live with it if the sweater turns out half as well as it's looking at the moment.

Gauge is still running a tiny bit bigger than the pattern, so I remain ever hopeful that it will fit like a glove when it's all finished.  Everyone cross your fingers, please!

Since lightning fast (at least for me) sweater production didn't seem like enough to keep me busy, I went yarn shopping.  What?  It was 20% off Saturday.  I had no choice.  I bought this:

It's Kia Ora Rimu fingering by Zealana.  Quite a mouthful.  I found it on clearance at my LYS, and had passed it up a few times already.  But it's 60% New Zealand Merino and 40% possum (!) and soooooooo soft.  It's kind of ridiculous.  Know what's ridiculous-er?  I bought it to make a baby dress.  For a baby.  Crazy, yes?  I couldn't help it, it's exactly the right shade (It's a heathery dark denim color.  Honest.) for what I wanted and did I mention soft?  So soft.  It's going to grow up to be Fiona's Top, a ridiculously -- sensing a theme here? -- expensive pattern that I justified by convincing myself I'll knit it for every girl baby who comes along.  It's that cute. 

I also ordered, because 20%!  Off! -- 5 skeins of Cascade 220 in Cordovan to knit an Idlewood.  It was totally an impulse buy, but I think it'll be pretty. 

And, over Thanksgiving, I ordered a set of Candy Skein minis for my Power Puff Quilt, which are totally amazing.  Look...

It's a whole rainbow of puff ingredients.  You get enough of each color to make 2 of each puff, but I'm planning on one solid puff of each color, then some stripey puffs and some rainbow puffs, and, and, and...

Also, they come with these eensy little candy beads!  I have no idea what I'll do with them but they are adorable.  Seriously. And you'll just have to believe me on this one, because every single picture turned out blurry.  Sorry!

Also, they came with (Suddenly, I'm doing a Ginsu knives commercial* here...) this sample of Candy Skein Delicious, which might be the softest thing I've ever touched. 

I'm going to have to find a pattern to justify ordering a pile of it after Christmas, because at the moment the queue is a bit backed up.  Luckily, Christmas vacation is just around the corner.

...which doesn't in any way mean that Christmas is just around the corner.   I'm sure you still have plenty of time.  No need to panic.  Yet.  In fact, you should treat yourself with a visit to WIP Wednesday to see what everyone else is up to.  Rushing around can start next week or so.  (Is it working?  Are you less stressed now?)

*I <3 the internet.  It's amazing what you can dig up!