A yarn "high" - and low

On Monday I went to the post office to pick up some packages. I was expecting a couple - some shoes for Brian for a wedding he's going to be in next month and the recycled sari silk yarn I purchased on eBay to complete the Sonnet - but there was also a little surprise from my sister and a "mystery parcel" there as well. Not recognizing the name or address on the latter, I opened it and saw yarn - beautiful, even brown and purple yarn. I didn't remember any recent purchases of yarn other than the sari silk on eBay recently and was mystified until I found a folded piece of paper. It was a letter from Becky, one of my homemade PIF responders, telling me all about the yarn she had spun and died purple (yes, even the brown is overdyed purple), just for me! I was overwhelmed, not just by her thoughtfulness and generosity, but also by her amazing spinning - look at how even and perfect it is! The flash washes out the colors a bit, but shows detail. Hmm, now what to knit? The two colors look so nice together that I'd like to figure out a way to use them in one item, without resorting to horizontal stripes.

The thrill of Becky's unexpected gift was tempered with the reality of the newest batch of recycled sari silk yarn for the Sonnet that arrived the same day. The colors were okay; I picked the skein that best matched what I had going in the one sleeve, wound it into a ball, and proceeded to knit with it that night at a meeting. After a few rows, I realized it was NOT going to work. This newest yarn is MUCH finer than what I had been using, and not only did it look obviously different, the gauge was going to be off as well. I had to frog all I had done on the sleeve. At first I thought I could just knit a new gauge swatch, adjust my figures, and knit both sleeves from the finer yarn, but then I realized that the top of the sleeves would have more stitches than the sleeve openings in the body. No local yarn shop carries this stuff, and I won't know if what is on eBay will work until it gets here. As it is, I have 10 skeins of beautiful recycled silk yarn that won't work for my WIP. I could turn the Sonnet into a very heavy vest, but I don't wear vests much. What to do? I'm bummed!

A lemons-into-lemonade aside: If anyone knows of a lacy tunic pattern, let me know. I think this finer yarn would look neat knitted into such and worn over a camisole or blouse.

Oh, and Happy Spring, everyone!