If you're joining in the MasonDixon Knitting BangOut a Sweater KAL -aka the Stopover KAL LopapeysaLooza--whatever you're calling it ---you'll love my yarn shopping tip.
Let me preface this. 1) the words "yarn shopping tip" do not roll easily off my fingertips and 2) I love my LYS.I always try to Shop Local. My local clubhouse , Knit New Haven*, does not carrry Lopi. Nor does the yarn shop at the other end of town, The Yarn Basket, nor my 3rd closest, the artsy and fun to shop at Madison Wool. So, last month, when I decided to satisfy my colorwork jones described here with Mary Jane Mucklestone's Stopover, I hit the internet.
I'd seen this Frank Stella piece, in Kay Gardiner Herself's IG feed in late November. In an uncharacteristically decisive move, I declared it my Stopover colorway. Or as Kay calls it, my #Stellover. (always with the great hashtags, that one)
Looking online I had trouble finding just the right colors in any one shop. I landed on a new-to-me yarn source, Nordic Store and gleefully saw the LettLopi price set at $ 2.49 a skein. And not just some, but ALL the colors.
WHAT? Lopi is a bargain even at full price (usually $4.50/skein) but this was cray-zeee. I grabbed my four colors, added a fifth because why not, I go to the shipping and WHAT THEWHAT? The 4-7 day shipping price is $21.??? Almost equal to the price of the yarn?
So. Turns out I was online shopping in Rekjavik. But - I had the exact hues I wanted, and more, and the price was the same- or less- than ordering in the US with shipping. I hit OK and BOOM 4 days later I had my international mail with this inside .
Yup a video, because Icelandic wool by Icelandic mail gets the full Hollywood treatment.
And also because I hit the video button on my phone by mistake.
I'm going to consider myself a KAL member anyway, even if I already cast on. Without the CC on the bottom ribbing because that's not a good place for me to have a horizontal line. If you know what I mean. I'll have a good chunk of it knit while away this coming weekend- but I bet you'll still be done before me.
* At KNH they suggested subbing Quince Osprey. Different feel but nice option. I also considered Brown Sheep Lambs Pride, my old go-to for scandanavian style sweaters. But- a knitter wants what a knitter wants and in this case, it's the real Lopi and a package from Iceland.
