Anyway, after our very successful conversation ended, I marched right around the corner and up the stairs to one of my local yarn stores. (I have five LYS, but only if you count individually the three branches of the DC store.) I freely admit that the primary reason I selected this location for the initial meeting with the photographer is its proximity to one of my LYS.
I tried my hardest to stay away, but you know me, I can resist everything but temptation. So I went. And I browsed. And I browsed some more. Since I hadn't given any serious thought (or any thought at all, really) to my next project, I was hoping to leave with my wallet full and my bag light. Sadly or gladly, depending on the point of view, that was not meant to be.
The shelves filled with yarn seduced me into deciding to tackle once again the Honeymoon Cami, a project I had previously attempted, semi-successfully. Okay, so it wasn't exactly a success, because I didn't finish it. But it wasn't a failure, either, because I finished all but the straps.
One of the original problems was my yarn selection. I chose a beautiful azure mercerized cotton yarn (see below). Mercerized cotton is cotton treated so that it has a natural sheen - very smooth, very pretty. Unfortunately, 100% cotton yarns lack sufficient elasticity and knit up to a very dense fabric that, over time, loses its proper shape.
But this time around, I corrected that little error. I chose Rowan's Calmer, a 75% cotton, 25% acrylic/microfibre blend yarn that will not only hold its shape, but also is more elastic (and thus easier to work with) and softer than its predecessor. This time, I decided to go with a classic ivory color.
Above: My three skeins (I love it when they're sold as center-pull skeins, saves me the time & effort of winding hanks of yarn into center-pull skeins) of ivory Rowan Calmer, resting on top of my precious Denise Interchangeable Needles set and next to a marked-up copy of the Honeymoon Cami pattern.
