Delicious Yarns // Odila Cape

When I got this yarn in the mail, it was all I could do to not wind it up immediately. I cannot resist a good bulky-weight yarn, especially one dyed as cool as this. It's Delicious Yarns Two Sweets Chunky in "Licorice Mix," a superwash merino. How cute is this label? I love it.

I used the yarn to make the Odila Cape Pullover for Elaina in size 2/3 years. The pattern's yardage estimates are way off; size 2/3 should require 184 yards, and I had 210 but didn't have enough yarn to make the pocket. I'm not sure what I want to do about that- do I find another skein of this yarn for the pocket? Do I skip the pocket? Do I use a contrasting yarn, like a solid pink? I'm just not sure. Luckily this doesn't fit her yet so I have some time to think about it. But doesn't she look cute in it anyway? We've recently discovered that crawling around on the deck and trying to eat all of the leaves is fun.

 I really needed this quick knit as a palette cleanser, and a "get back the knitting mojo" project. Ever since the kiddo started crawling I haven't had any time during the day to knit, because I'm chasing her all day. I get a little knitting time in the evenings, after she goes to bed, and after I get all the stuff done that I couldn't get done during the day. While I have been making progress on my various WIPs (like my So Faded), I just needed a bang-it-out project, and I have to say I feel much better now. And of course now I want to knit all of the things in bulky weight.

I loved knitting with this yarn. It's really soft, and I just love the way a bulky feels while you're knitting it. The yarn settled into a really great pattern on its own in the bottom of the poncho, which is awesome because I really hate pooling. But I think they dye the yarn specifically so that it knits up like this. There was a little bit of dye bleed when I blocked this, but just a bit, and not unexpected for such saturated colors. Those purple bits glow.

Yes yes, too big, but still adorable.

If you sign up for the newsletter on the Delicious Yarns website, you get two free patterns plus "a sweet surprise within a few weeks of signing up" which makes me curious and I think I will sign up just to see what that is. 

Thank you to Delicious Yarns for providing the yarn for review. I love love loved it, no lie.

"Buy No Supplies" January Update.

Well, I did it- I the whole of January (and the first 9 days of February, so far) without stepping foot in a craft or fabric store. Honestly it hasn't been that hard, but that might have been because I spent the first 10 days of January really, really sick, then the next week in a blind panic to get some publications out the door, then most of the rest of the month trying to catch up on the life I missed while doing the first two things, and now it's maybe just habit to NOT want to go fabric shopping? I was tempted a couple times to go to Joann, because the baby likes it, and I'm always looking for ways to entertain the baby, but instead we did some free things like go to the park, go to baby play time at the library, that kind of thing. I'm so proud of us.

Overall I haven't had much time to sew in 2018, which is probably the biggest reason that it's been easy to not buy anything. I made a couple things, though (picture at the top of this post): two bibs, two pairs of underpants for me, an orange raglan sweater each for me and the baby (this stuff was a nightmare to sew, and I hated it, but I bought the fabric over a year ago specifically to make a raglan sweater so dang it that's what I did), and I finished this quilt top above. Knitting wise (picture below), I made this earwarmer from some gorgeous Plucky Bulky, finished my Beatitude cardigan, finished the baby's So Faded but that's not in the picture because it's in her room and she's napping, have almost finished the body of a So Faded for me, and knitted some magazine samples I can't show you. I guess when it's all laid out like that yeah, I actually did make some stuff! Good for me.

I made no dent in my stash at all. I didn't think I would in just one month, but still. I'm a good portion into February without buying any supplies so I'm going to keep it going. I've got several sewing projects lined up using stuff I already have so it should be easy. Knitting- I have so much gorgeous yarn that I had forgotten about. I'm happier with my yarn stash than my fabric stash, but they're both great. No need to buy anything. Plus with the money I saved this past month I'm totally buying shoes and not feeling guilty. That's some incentive, for sure!