Yarn delivery day is always a good day. All the pretty balls are still in their labels, still neat and tidy. That won’t last. Soon there will be a loose end poking out and a label will slip off and the balls will get a little disheveled in that way that matters not at all to crafters.

The yarn is Brava Sport from Knit Picks. I’m making their Hue Shift Afghan for my mom in the Rainbow Color Kit.

The pattern was made available free for a limited time (I think that deal has expired now) and that’s how I talked myself into this. But its all good. I got all this pretty yarn to play with. My mom gets (sometime after Christmas) a pretty blanket. And Feline Overlord got a new box.

Cowardly Boy Cat will get to try out the box sometime next week. He has to wait his turn. For now she sits in it and he gazes on adoringly.

So we all came out winners!

The yarn is 100% acrylic which I figure is just the thing for a blanket that will live at Mom’s. She has two cats, a dog, and a cleaning fetish. Mom fights an endless war against pet hair and any blanket of hers is going to be washed a time or two.

I haven’t started working with the yarn yet so I can’t give a full review. Obviously. But I can tell you that its soft. Very soft. And it seems to have that nice “I’m-imitating-wool” spring to it that some acrylics have.

I also have a plan for this making of this blanket. This will be the project that I use to teach myself how to knit with a knit sheath. Why not? Its a miter square blanket so all the stitches are knits. And miter squares are pretty forgiving. If I make one a little wonky, I should be able to fudge it with some firm blocking.

Yes, after that post I made earlier this week complaining that I didn’t have a knit sheath I’ve been looking around for a way to make a knit sheath. Bless all of you who came up with places to buy one but… I can’t afford a $150 belt from Principles of Knitting or those lovely hand-carved creations on etsy. Maybe later. Maybe I can get myself a fancy one after I, you know, prove to myself that I can use a knit sheath.

In my hunt for an improvised knit sheath I realized that all I needed was a long, thin and rigid tube. It turns out I have lots of those! I just needed to pop the end off one of my cheap aluminum straight knitting needles.

In truth it was not at all easy to get that end off. I tried every screwdriver and every pair of pliers I own. I also tried every dirty word I know. None of that worked. In the end I had to go find a man with really big hands who popped the bugger off in less than a minute using the plastic handle from a cheap pair of scissors. Men can be so annoying when they are helpful don’t ya think?

There one long, rigid tube.

The plan is to stuff it with some fiber, which I have plenty of, and see how it does holding my right-handed needle. Then I’ll be casting on for my Hue Shift Afghan and teaching myself how to use the darn thing.

I’ll let you know how it goes. Wish me luck.