Last year, I joined a few yarn clubs. One changed to a new name, so I chose that time to let my subscription lapse. One I simply quit because I didn’t like the colorways after two months. KnitCrate went under, which was tragic. The only one I’m still in this year is Destination Lane, which sends out yarn every two months starting in January. You can get bags in the even months, but I opted to get just yarn.

The first shipment took us to the Grand Canyon, and geez, it’s a pretty yarn!

This is in Destination Yarn’s Postcard yarn, so with my order of three hanks, I have 1,389 yards of fingering weight yarn.

My first pattern choice was an Expression Fiber Arts crochet shawl called Sweet Meadow, but the stitches for that were quite maddening with this yarn, and I couldn’t see myself finishing four rows, much less the whole shawl.

I looked around some more and settled on the V-Neck Boxy, which looks both nice and baggy but great for this type of yarn. I always struggle with finding the right kind of pattern for hand-dyed yarn (which is so dumb because I love buying hand-dyed yarn), so even though I’d chosen this one, I was a bit skeptical as to whether I’d make it through this too.

It was even more bleak when I bought the pattern, downloaded it, and realized that it involved wrap and turns, which I have found very frustrating and confusing in the past. I really prefer raglan increases, but oh well. I was too lazy to go searching yet again. I spent hours over the weekend while my computer was broken working on starting this, as frustrating as it was.

Speaking of lazy, I almost didn’t cake all three hanks. I’ve already learned the hard way—twice—about the importance of alternating skeins between rows, and I thought the hanks all looked similar. Maybe this pullover would be fine even if it changed shades partway through? In the end, though, I wound them all, and good thing too, because the color difference was more noticeable than I thought.

This is the top back of the pullover, and you can’t really see the ridges right now because it’s bunching up, but I’m assuming it’ll pull down when the sweater is worn due to the weight of the lower part of the garment, thus showing the actual garter ridges.

I did all the ridges with one cake, then I started alternating with the stockinette. I’ve got about an inch and a half to go before I start working on the fronts, then I have to join everything and I can start knitting in the round, thus rescuing me from loads of purling.

I’m pretty happy with how it looks in stockinette, so I’ll keep going, and hopefully I’ll finish this before I get my next shipment.

Hahahahaha! I’m totally kidding (myself).

I still haven’t used up a single shipment from 2022’s yarns. All great yarns, but boy do I get distracted easily. 🙂