Highland Missed

I must have jinxed myself in my last post by mentioning that I had enough yarn. Because not two hours later, I found I only had a few feet left of one of my background colors, Highland Mist. I briefly considered cannibalizing my swatches, but quickly came to my senses. I ordered an additional ball from a different supplier than where I got the original. It won't be from the same dye lot, but since the two batches will be separated by many rounds, it shouldn't matter. Still, it will be the middle of next week before it arrives. So as regards the state of my vest, I have to paraphrase Jane Seymour as Dr. Quinn, "It's resting now."

So it's back to more Christmas balls. I've finished up the last two patterns in the chapter on hearts. The first here is Hospitality: Room in the Heart. I like how these nested hearts connect solidly across the panels, creating a cut-out paper-doll or snow-flake effect. Since I used so many red beads on the other heart patterns, I opted for silver beads in the negative space. This wiped me out of my supply, so I'm off to get more this afternoon. I hope they have some in stock this time.

The last pattern on the chapter is Meeting Hearts. It might remind one of two sideways hearts joined by a square buckle. Like many of the two-paneled patterns, these are hard to photograph and show the whole effect. There are little heart-ish shapes within the sideways hearts, but frankly, this pattern confuses me. I think this has been my least favorite ball to knit so far. The pattern doesn't appeal to me much, I made lots of mistakes on it, and I don't think I executed it particularly well.

But onward -- and upward! The next section is all about angels and thing angelic. Better dust off my halo.