Plan B - Updated

Despite a valiant effort to make it work, the Knitpicks Bulky Swish is being given the heav-ho.  As Maria stated in the comments, life is too short to knit with yarn you do not like.

The Swish, despite its advertising, is not thick enough to be true bulky-weight yarn.  I have found this regarding all four of the knitpicks yarn I have tried, it is all a tad bit skimpy for the weight it is supposed to be.  In addition, the Swish feels much like acrylic.  There are a host of other complaints, but I shall leave it at that and if anyone would like to experience this first hand, please shout out and I shall happily ship it off to you.  I have10 skeins =1370.0 yards of Swish Bulky in Cypress:

Now that that business has been taken care of, I have moved on and decided the husband really is a great guy and deserves yarn I would use for myself.  I have 10 skeins on Malabrigo in Marine, a deep dark blue that would look wonderful on the man.  So, I went back to the drawing board and came up with another Norah Gaughan pattern called Beagle.

While I have barely started, I am well pleased.  There is nothing like Malabrigo!

As is my wont, I am modifying the pattern and knitting this one in the round.  I laugh as I work on it because I have used just about every stitch marker I have for the different sections.

There was only one thing, the pattern called for 2170 yards and I only had 2160 yards of Malabrigo.  While I know there is some padding in estimating yardage, I wanted to make sure.  Yesterday, I ran over to The Knitting Nest because I needed a 32" size 7 pair of Addi circulars for the project and she just happened to have more Malabrigo in Marine, so I picked up an insurance hank.  Yay!  (Further proof, of course, that this was the correct decision.)

While I was there, I looked over the other shades of Malabrigo as I was considering making one of these:

The pattern is Ingenue from Wendy Bernard's Custom Knits.

My thought was I would love to make this for Sweet One, but was unsure whether she would actually like it.  I decided to go ahead and pick up 5 skeins of Bobby Blue Malabrigo and whip it out (don't laugh).

As an aside, I was torn between an orangey-red and this blue color.  Wee One was with me and I turned to her and asked:  "Which of these do you think your sister would like better?"

Without as much as second thought, she glanced at the yarns I proffered and immediately responded:  "Blue.  She wears a lot of blue."

And that was that.

Here's the yarn, as soon as I got home last night, I cast on:

I love it!

I called Sweet One on the way home, after I bought the yarn.

Me:  "I am going to make you a sweater, would you prefer it in an orangey-red or a blue?"

Sweet One:  "As I have a lot of blue in my wardrobe, I think I like blue better, but what if I don't like the sweater pattern?"

Me:  "Well, Aunt Rosemarie may be joining us for Christmas.  If you don't like it, I will give it to her because it will look fab."

Sweet One:  "And if I like it?"

Me:  "Then I will immediately cast on and make her one, too.  I really like this sweater.  It is Audrey Hepburn-esque."

So, I do think my ambition will be the absolute death of me, but I will keep you posted.

Happy Knitting!

UPDATED:  The KnitPicks yarn has found a new home!