It looks like I ordered my Rowan Linen Drape just barely in the nick of time. Carolyn says it is going to be discontinued. Rats! I was hoping I would really like it and be able to use it again. On the subject of Rowan waving their Discontinuation Wand, I noticed a lot of the patterns in Vintage Knits use Rowan Botany -- also discontinued, I assume since publication of the book. Has long has it been since Folk Bags was published? The Napramach bag uses Felted Tweed and one of the colors, Arctic, is no longer available. I decided to go ahead and sub with Dragon, even though it looks like a darker gray. I really liked the given color scheme more than anything I was coming up with using the colors available.

Both Silk Garden Blocking Swatches turned out pretty well. I think I like the wet-blocked one better, because the one I pressed did turn out a little smooshed. I wonder about pinning and steaming and also about pinning and spray dampening. I may go ahead and make a couple more swatches to see. I certainly have plenty of remnants and learning the best way to block this yarn would be good for future reference. I would love to use Silk Garden many more times. My main concern with wet-blocking was color-fastness.

The denim yarn I am using for Core came on a cone. I wound off a couple balls to knit from, but I am having some serious torque problems. I am going to divide into smaller balls -- 50 grams each -- that may help. I got almost half done with the first front side, but I'm going to have to rip it -- the gauge I'm getting is not what I got when I swatched. That is probably a good lesson: if six months have passed between the time you swatch for a project and the time you actually start it, perhaps you should Swatch Again.