I hate when that happens

I am the original "money burns a hole in my pocket" woman. No really, I can't stand it if I have "extra" money. It's easier for me to be broke than it is to have anything extra. When I'm broke, I just tell myself, "You can't afford it - just look." That money from Elann was making me crazy. Luckily, today I found Peruvian Collection Quechua. It's an alpaca/tencel blend and it's beautiful. Here's the color I got:



I think it will be lovely and drapey and very swank to knit with. At first, I thought it was going to be this:



But the gauge doesn't quite work out. Gauge for Quechua is 22 st = 4 inches and the gauge for Gatineau is 20 st = 4 inches. Not terribly different and I probably could make it work, but I'd really rather not. So then I found this sweater:



The gauge matches, the sweater is slightly too small around. That I can fix easily. The sweater, called Mariner, is knit in mercerized cotton. I'm thinking that alpaca (with no memory) and tencel (with it's drape and sheen) is a good substitute. It will be warmer than a cotton sweater, but I can live with that. I love this planning phase!!