NY knits

I got a lot of knitting done on my trip to New York. The great thing about knitting on holiday is that the project becomes a souvenir of the trip, every time you wear the finished object you remember the holiday.



I knit on the plane* (it's allowed now!), and at the hotel, and on the subway, and on the train and when I came back I had this.



The only reason it's not already finished is that I ran out of yarn. The pattern estimated 950 yards for the size that I'm knitting and I had 952 yards so I'm really not sure how I've ended up 2 balls short - either the estimate or the yardage on the ball band is way out. I've ordered another couple of balls from Blacker Yarns. I hope it's the right shade - it's not always the easiest thing to match up the information on the ball band with the information on the website.

So in the meantime I'm working on this.



I bought 5 skeins of Cascade 220 from Purl Soho (another souvenir from New York). Purl Soho is a lovely shop.



The only problem is there's too much choice. I managed to spend a whole hour browsing before Richard lost patience and made me make up my mind.

I suspect that the Cascade still isn't the perfect choice for the Deco pattern. Not completely surprising since the only test I applied was to check that it was thinner than the first yarn that I chose. I even had a long conversation over tea in Headington (at the lovely Jacobs & Field) with Felix about knitting a new gauge swatch and trying to knit a smaller size on larger needles but whilst I was waiting for my bus I realised that the more I knit the more drape the fabric seemed to have.



And I love the colour, which doesn't show up well in either of these photos but it's a deep jade.

* no problem taking wooden interchangeables through security screening at Heathrow or Newark and the only comment I got from United staff was on the colour of the yarn.

ETA: As this is always a hot topic amongst knitters I thought I'd add a little extra detail. Although there were no signs prohibiting knitting needles at the United/Continental desk I took a couple of precautions anyway. I used KnitPro interchangeables with wooden points and I unscrewed the points before we went through security screening and put the end protectors on the cable so that if there was a problem I wouldn't be faffing around in the queue trying to unscrew my needles. I then put the points in my purse with a couple of pencils and the bag went through fine. I also had a spare set of points in the case that I checked in, just in case.