Kat with a K

Well, there's good news and there's bad news.

The good news: I found my Aran! The other night I was at Barnes and Noble browsing through The Harmony Guide to Aran and Fair Isle Knitting and found myself staring longingly at the His and Her Aran Sweater, thinking "If only it didn't have the stupid diamond things!" (No offense to anyone who likes diamond patterns like that. I just think they would make me look like I was wearing my dad's sweater or something. Not that my dad wears sweaters much. But you get the idea.)

Well, it took a few minutes, but I finally realized that this was an Aran stitch guide I was reading, so I could probably find a similarly-sized pattern to substitute in those panels. And yes, there was a lovely Celticy braid thingy that will do nicely. I finished my chai, bought the book, and hurried home all excited to start. I found the correct needles, even, and pulled out some yarn. Then, in a rare and now-much-regretted moment of rationality, I counted up the yarn to see how much I had.

The bad news: I do not have enough yarn. I have eight four-ounce skeins from Bartlett Yarns. The pattern calls for thirty-six ounces. I did the math several times, but there is just not enough. I resisted the urge to "just try it" anyway, because as satisfying as it would be to start, it would be very upsetting to run out of yarn on the last sleeve. So. There is nothing for it. I need to buy new yarn for my Aran.

I was all into my Bartlett yarn now, though, so I tore through all the magazines and books I could find trying to determine what it wanted to be. I finally found the Old Way Gansey from the Winter 2004 Interweave Knits. And I love it. I must have seen it before, when I first got the magazine, but I didn't really notice it. Now, though, I am just itching to start it. And I did the math a bunch of times and I'm quite sure I have enough yarn. So tomorrow after work I will go get needles so I can get knitting away. The Aran will have to wait a bit.

(Yes, I know that the Old Way Gansey is shown as a man's sweater. For some reason, the majority of the sweaters I was considering last night were men's sweaters. I'm not sure why that is. Something to ponder.)