Some WIPs and a flash of my stash

So I promised yesterday that I'd post about knitting... I'm nearly done the collar of Menja, and making it was REALLY ANNOYING! It's a 48-row cable panel repeated 7 times (not so bad...) but then there are short rows thrown in all over the place to confuse me! In the spring, I thought it looked like cr*p, so I put it aside. I ripped the whole thing in France (5 repeats in), and now I'm nearly one repeat number 7. It looks MUCH BETTER the second time around. I guess I'm interpreting the short row instructions better this time around. Here's a pic of the cabling on the collar.
Not bad, eh? The short rows give it that curve. The yarn is Knitpicks Merino Style, and it's beautifully soft. I hope it dosen't pill though. And I know it's knot very colour fast, because my
woodn DPNs used to knit the collar are stained with a bluish tinge. Now for the Ivanova-original purple tweed sweater...,
All that's left is to seam that last sleeve in, and block it. It took me forever to get those deleted
expletive sleeves right, but now I think it's good to go. I may yet redo the button holes, I used a
crochet chain button hole, and they may be a bit loose for those tiny little buttons. Live and learn, I guess. The color is quite accurate in these photos, it is a very lovely purple.

I bought some new yarn, as I just moved and my stash was greatly reduced. While I miss my stash tucked away in my Dad's basement, I have a few future projects that will be in the works very soon. An old friend from back home is due in February, gender unknown, so I have decided to make Trellis from Knitty. I believe that Delenn is working on one now, so I'd love to hear feedback on the pattern. I bought some yarn I have never heard of before from a LYS, it is
aran weight superwash merino. It is SO soft, I could lie in it and snuggle up! Fortunately I don't
need that much for a baby sweater! I belive the price was about 3.5 euros for 100 m, so that's probably half the price that Rowan would charge for a comparable yarn. It's the store brand,
Wolle Roedel, so I have no idea who it is made by, or how someone would get it outside of Germany. I will deliver a full review once the sweater is done.
I figured that a soft gray is sophisticated and gender-neutral enough for baby clothes. I was initially gravitating towards a dark charcoal grey but the shop girl convinced me to go down the lighter color route. I also noticed a silk-wool-angora tweed yarn on a half-price sale, probably their equivalent of Garnstudio's Silke Tweed, and it was pretty cheap, 2 euros a ball down from 4. But I didn't note down the yardage, or get a good look at the colors before the sales associate pounced on me. I guess browsing is not really done here.

Now for the next Ivanova-original sweater, to be started once Trellis is complete. I bought some Noro in Grenoble, as noted below, and I also ordered some Donegal Irish Tweed to be combined for a sweater. Here they are, nestled together, and I think they'll look great.
The tweed is a deep rich blue flecked with cranberry black and light blue. The Silk Garden is going to be used for a 4-5 inch band at the waist, the button-hole and button bands, collar and cuffs. The tweed will be used as the main color. This idea was inspired by a design by Cornelia Tuttle-Hamilton in one of her Noro books, but her design uses chunky yarns. I do not believe (and I cannot overemphasize this) that short people like myself should wear chunky knit sweaters. Especially paired with horizontal lines. Plus, you can't fit that much cabling on a chunky sweater, compared to an aran, worsted or heavy DK sweater. I will post the sketch of my idea when I have selected the main cable pattern.

Ivanova