Knit 0, Purl 0

So I mentioned how I got (slightly overpriced) pretty plum purple 100% wool yarn from Avril. 100 grams. Well yesterday, I go to Avril (as opposed to working on grad apps - that WILL be rectified! I go to Starbucks tomorrow at EIGHT a.m.) to get more pretty plum purple (henceforth known as PPP) yarn.

The idea was since that that PPP yarn is a bit pricey, to use it at the ends and fill in the middle with a different color. I was thinking chocolate brown - preferably to get it at a different store, since it might be cheaper. Ok, so I go to Avril and I get the last 82 grams and there is no more in the lot at the store. Bah. I get it, and trot off to find this fabric store that I always remember in passing - but I forgot if it was in Shinkyogoku or Teramachi, the two covered shopping arcades between Shijo and Sanjo. I was at Sanjo so I go down Shinkyogoku (where I pick up the bamboo needles that are actually in numbered sizes as opposed to millimeter width, and a few other sewing things at the 100yen shop) and walk back up Teramachi. Wouldn't you know, the shop was in Teramachi.

I go and a see a small bin with yarn. For 2100 yen I got 400grams each of chocolate brown and hunter green wool (the latter color is for Alisa). But I notice it's rather...thin. Hmm.

After walking around Fuji Daimaru (sigh, but I did not buy anything - control here!) and getting a case for my Nintendo DS (they came out in new colors! METALLIC PINK, METALLIC SILVER!!! Good thing my sister didn't get hers yet I can pick up one for her here and she will be the coolest girl on the block, haha), I returned to Avril to see if they had any acrylic yarn. I wanted to make dishcloths.

Seriously! The state of the yarn situation in Kyoto is deplorable. It is (somewhat) overpriced (I am a student, ya know!) and there is not much variety. I miss the bins at Michael's and the stores down in SoHo that I have not been to yet (oh, but I will! I need to now set up a separate yarn fund - I am totally addicted now).

There are 2 more stores possibly around here - I asked the girls at Avril and they didn't even know. I go home and realize that the chocolate brown yarn is too thin to go with PPP to make a comprehensible ribbed scarf. Furthermore, 182grams a tucker scarf does not make. Especially in a K3,P3 rib stitch.

I could go back to Avril and get the chocolate brown from the same group that I got PPP from to make it a tucker but a) ANOTHER 1050yen for 100 grams? Hell no, and b) I have 400grams of very nice 100% chocolate brown wool and I was considering chocolate brown originally. PPP was a bit of an impulse buy.

Sadly, I frogged it. I was talking with my mom about this issue of the now excessive PPP yarn (if I knew what I knew now I wouldn't have gotten that other 82grams) and I was thumbing through my Knit Knack cards. Wouldn't you know! There is a pattern to make a knit cap with ear-flaps and it requires 100grams exactly. Well I have that, and I think a PPP knit hat would go better with my (sister's) red J.Crew cropped Panama jacket with a chocolate brown scarf since the purple won't clash so much against the red.

As for the other 82grams? I dunno but for now I am thinking of tassels to go on the bottom of the ear-flaps and have those braided - I would say a foot long braid so that is two feet and then that would mean 6 feet of yarn total...possible. It is such a pretty color, I really do not want it to go to waste. Mittens require 113 grams, but I will go back to Avril and get a funky color (like a multi-color yarn) for that.

In the meantime, I am working on Alisa's scarf, on No. 6 bamboo needles. I think I am going to toss the plastic ones, since the exact bamboo needles I got at the 100yen shop were also sold at Avril, so I know those are the proper ones - I also got a set of size 6 double-pointed needles so I can start knitting in the round, though I think I might need 8 for the hat whereas 6 is fine for the socks/mittens pattern I have.

I started it in a garter stitch - I was too pissed at myself to concentrate on K3,P3 whilst talking to my mom on Skype, though I might just make it really nice and long and use up all 400 grams. Right now it is about 5 inches wide - a bit skinny but since it will be long and flat it will be nice and warm, and I have seen her wear long-ish scarves. Maybe I will dress it up at the ends with some tassels if I have enough yarn left over.