I think my blog is trying desperately to find itself an identity. Since I no longer need to report back to family and friends on my adventures in Boston (which, in retrospect, were not terribly adventurous, alas...), I've been trying to figure out what exactly I want to write about here at Rathnait's Playground. Life in general, sure - that always seems to creep in regardless of what I intend to do. But I'm thinking I want to write more about food experiments - since I'm cooking a lot - and knitting projects with the life stuff.

So. To that end, I have a random question for the knitters among you:

I have 8 50 gram balls of Debbie Bliss wool/cotton in a dark purple color (701, I think, on the chart on that link) which I bought a year or so ago with no intended project. I thought the color was pretty, I could only afford 8 skeins, at the time, and figured I'd find something I could use it for. That was my critical error. Thus far I've had no luck finding a pattern that only needs 8 skeins.

Since I bought the yarn more than a year ago, I have no hope of purchasing more of the yarn from the same die lot. So, obviously, a full-sized, one-color sweater is out. I thus have to either find a pattern that uses 8 or fewer skeins or combine it with another color of the same kind of yarn.

So my question is, does anyone have any pattern suggestions? I spent about 3 hours at the yarn store a few weeks ago, digging through books, but just didn't find anything that struck me. Fair Isle appeals to me, but I've never done anything like it before. I'm also wondering if I could buy the remaining skeins in the same color - assuming there are only 2 or 3 I'm missing - and alternate rows so that the two different die lots blend together??

I just don't know what I should do... Suggestions/ideas gratefully accepted!