It was one of those glorious autumn mornings this morning. The sun was out but there was a cool, refreshing breeze. Between work and niggly little bouts of sickiness, I haven’t exercised for weeks. So I suggested to the beau that we walk to Lincraft and back.

On the way I dropped off a bag of yarn at the op shop, and when I got to Lincraft I stuck to exchanging yarn – not buying more – so I’m feeling rather virtuous. Despite the enthusiasm of commenters, I really couldn’t bring myself to use the shocking pink on the blanket. But I also agreed that the white was too stark. So what did I settle on?

‘Beige’.

Actually, it’s more like a milky coffee colour. I tried out the colour in Photoshop on my blanket photo and liked it. And the new yarn balls look good among the coloured ones. It’s not a colour I’d think of straight away as a match for those colourful granny squares, but it seems to work. I’ll post pics once I’ve edged and joined a row or two of squares.

Since I’m nearing the end of the Ribbed Wrap Jacket (two sleeves and a huge collar to go is close enough, isn’t it?) I’ve been considering what to knit next. A Knit From Your Books project, or something else? Dragging out Domiknitrix and Knitting Nature, I examined the patterns and realised I have yarn issues with both of my favourites, Sweetheart and the Snapping Turtle Skirt.

With Sweetheart, it’s the same issue I had with Tubey. It has a neckline that would be spoiled by wearing something underneath, but if I make it in wool I have to wear something underneath or I’ll go mad from the itching. Would silk, or alpaca, work as a subsitute? I’m worried they won’t, since it’s a garment that looks like it needs elasticity.

The Turtle Skirt is made of an acrylic yarn not available in Australia. Quite a large quantity, too. And it’s a 10ply, as far as I can make out, which means it’ll be hard to find a substitute. Especially a tweedy one in a nice colour.

Then I had one of those serendipitous moments. Could I use a 12ply instead and knit a smaller size? There are 12plys in garment quantities in my stash. I thought of the blue-pink Shadow Tweed straight away. Graduating colours in hexagons? How would that look? Fantastic? Or like I’m wearing a skirt made of pointy Madonna-bra-like cones?

Clearly I was going to have to test knit a hexagon to find out. Trouble was, you need dpns to knit the hexagons and the gaps in my dpn stash were around the size needles I’d need for playing with Shadow Tweed. I popped into Wondoflex on Monday on the way back from seeing my allergist. I had the beau waiting in the car, on a 40 degree day, so I quickly grabbed two out of the three dpn sizes I needed and headed for the counter. When I got there, guess what was on the counter?

Yarn magazine had just arrived. And it’s full of reviews of silk yarns. How did they know?