Sucker!

I can be such a sucker sometimes. The other day, I was in Louisville, and after an appointment went well, decided to stop in a yarn shop there to take a little peak. With the baby gifts on small needles and the weather getting colder, I've been wanting to knit a soft and cozy scarf and hat. Ya know, something easy and quick. I picked out 4 skeins of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino, paid, and walked out of the store. I'm thinking Backyard Leaves from Scarf Style. I fell in love with a denimy blue shade. Yes, everyone has knitted this in green, and it makes no sense in blue but I'm just not a green person. And the blue kind of looks like a muted, faded Kentucky blue, and I can always use more Kentucky blue to wear on gamedays.

As I was wandering to my car, I glanced in my bag and realized that I really liked the color. Wouldn't I love to have a sweater in that color? It's probably going to be cold for the last football game of the season against Tennessee, so it would be nice to have that cute little cardi I've been thinking of, right? I hopped right back into the store and picked out 3 more skeins. This will be enough to do another Cardi from the Yarn Girls' Guide (this time, adding some shaping). Perfect, huh?

Not so fast! Cashmerino is so lovely and soft but didn't I vow to never, ever use it for a sweater after reading some bad reviews at Wiseneedle? People are saying that it looked bad within a couple of wearings and some even said it looked bad before they were done knitting it. It apparently pills like crazy, right? I'm a sucker. I can lose all sense of self control when holding super soft yarn.

Now I'm a little torn. I can return some of the skeins and carry on with my scarf plan. Or take my sweater chances. So I set out to try to destroy a swatch I made. I handwashed it, rubbing it and thrashing it around. Later on , I threw it in the washer with a load of darks (not in the gentle cycle) then tossed it in the dryer. Again, no gentle cycle here. I handwashed it again. If anyone ever abuses their handknits like this, I feel for their poor little knits. I then stuck it in the waistband of my yoga pants while lounging around the house, figuring it would get a lot of rubbing when sitting and moving around. I think this poor swatch has gone through enough.

My little experiment has shown that the stockinette side looks pretty good. It's a bit fuzzy but no piling so far. The reverse side looks much more worn but who is going to see that side?

I love how it feels, I love the color, I just don't want to spend all the time knitting a cardi and all the money on this yarn for it to look like crap in a month! Ahh, what to do?