Spiraling out of control

Yesterday I had a little time to myself, so of course, headed to my local yarn shop. I had bought the Sahara pattern from Stitch Diva a couple of weeks ago but hadn't acquired the yarn for it yet. I had searched around for a little while on the internet perusing my options but have not had the guts to drop almost $200 on the Tilli Tomas yarn used in the sample. Yes, it was beautiful, georgeous and completely perfect the way it was made, I'm just not sure if my current skill level warrants that kind of spendage. I might have still bought it if any of the yarn stores I frequented carried it. They had a few of the skeins that I would have used for the trim, but not the Tilli Tomas Pure and Simple. And not in the dark blue I have decided to use for the sweater. I thought that I would see it, feel it, and maybe somehow, justify it to myself. It WAS my 3rd sweater, I kind of understand how it works now. But it didn't matter, because it wasn't available to fondle.

I knew that the nice lady at the yarn shop would be able to help me pick a substitution out that I would still feel good about. The pattern calls for Tilli Tomas Pure and Simple and Tilli Tomas Rock Star. The yarn is just magnificent but...see above. So I decided to go with Berroco Softwist in Midnight Blue and Trendsetter Yarns Sunshine in Blueberry Hill. I think it will still be the beautiful sweater I am envisioning.

I also have completed a little project from Leigh Radford's book Oneskein 30 Quick Projects to Knit and Crochet. I made the Spiral Rib Bag. It came out very cute but it was a little smaller than I wanted it to be. I could have just kept going and made it taller but I only had the one skein of yarn and wasn't sure how much yarn the bottom was going to use. You knit in the round with a 16" circular needle, then bind of the top, then complete the bottom. It was my first experience knitting with such a short circular and was a little uncomfortable at first, but after a little while it got easier. I would have rather used Dpns, but I'm always open to trying new techniques. And I have an enormous amount of needles inherited from my grandmother that I feel I should at least try.