A macro shot of the unblocked mess that is Green Gable. I started this on the flight to London, because I needed a somewhat mindless knit for the looong flight (although a direct flight from Houston – bonus!). Somewhat mindless means that it’s easy to not pay attention and completely forget little things like raglan increases and pattern rows when you’re half asleep watching Walk the Line. Even worse is actually falling asleep watching the movie, which loops over and over again, and I spent the first half of the trip with Johnny Cash songs running through my brain. Regardless, the sweater is super cute so far. I’ll probably put it aside to finish poor Not-Orangina, which is knit to the waist and half-seamed up.

I’m knitting Blue Gable using Knitpicks Shine sport. First, the good: The yarn is incredibly soft and works up very nicely. Very, very soft. Not something you would use for crisp stitch definition, but it does the job for this sweater. Also, it is damn cheap.

The bad: I have found messy breaks in the yarn in four out of seven balls that I’ve rewound so far. WTF? I know it’s cheap, but this is just crap production of the yarn. Really crap. Every time I find a loose bit, I swear Knitpicks’ name. !@#$! Also, the yarn is put up on the most loosely-balled balls that it falls apart by just looking at it, hence the rewinding. The balls below are survivors after the surgery – one of the little guys is 10 grams, the other 5 grams.