Goodbye, Blue Monday

So, I've returned from Italy. The trip was good - sadly, not great. We were treated very rudely everywhere and I heard several people at the airport saying the same thing. I don't know if its the war, or if the Italians are just weary of tourists (because the crowds were brutal, let me tell you), or what, but it wasn't exactly a pleasant place to be. It pains me to say so, it really does.

As for Eurofly airlines, it was a good experience all in all. The seats on the plane were fairly worn looking but that might be my only real complaint. The food was basically edible for airline food, they served wine with dinner, the staff was young and good looking, and they flights were more or less on time. We arrived at the airport in Italy a bit over three hours before departure and no one was there to check people in until exactly three hours before, but thats not so bad nor so surprising. So if you found some crazy deal on Eurofly and are wondering what its all about, I'd say, take the deal and run with it - there are a lot worse major airlines in terms of service and timeliness here in the US.

I went to one yarn shop to try and find the Bollicine from my mom, but no luck. The people there were nice though. I also went to a really amazing fabric shop on Via Sistina, near the Spanish steps called Lisio Tessuti d'Arte. As you can no doubt tell from the link, those fabrics defy description. The gentleman in the shop didn't speak English, but we communicated in Italian/Spanish as much as we could - enough to find out that there was no way I could afford so much as a scrap, even if they had them. But if you go to Rome and are fabric shopping, do take a look - they are some of the most exquisite fabrics you'll see outside of museums.

I FINALLY got around to photographing some WIPs so lets talk about those:

This is the purple cotton lace cap sleeve shell from Elann that I mentioned. I've been cooking along on it and enjoying it thoroughly. I've never knitted a sweater in the round before, because it doesn't lend itself to being dragged around town, but this little summery number is fine for that. Too bad the pattern is no longer available in their free patterns section!

And here is the Classic Elite Vintage shell thing that I'm working on:

I haven't picked this thing up in a while, so I don't even know where I left off. There isn't much to the pattern but there is side shaping - shouldn't be too hard to figure out, except that stitches not on the needles are hard to count because of the texture. Which reminds me, I really like the texture of this yarn in reverse stockinette.

I last talked about this project in my "yarn snobbery" post where I went off on the Michael Kors project in the current issue of VK. Well, get this: the Michael Kors offices are in the same building and elevator bank as my office. So the evening I was leaving for the trip, this girl gets on the elevator off a Kors floor and she's wearing a sweater that is almost identical to the one in VK - only difference is hers was belted. So I asked her if it was a Michael Kors sweater and she said yes and I told her about the pattern in VK and how much it cost to buy the yarn. And she said that $300 was a bargain compared to what she paid for it and that "Thank God I get a clothing allowance." Anyways, moral of the story: if you want to wear a designer (which I don't, especially, I just liked that sweater), then knitting one of his or her designs in expensive yarn is still a better deal than buying it ready-made.

There are photos of the bog jacket too, but they aren't that great and I will save those for another day. Same goes for photos from Italy - lots of floral inspirations!