My knitting mojo seems to have returned - although I probably jinxed it by saying that.
I have finished two things - neither of which I can show you right now - and I have cast on for a new project. Luckily I can show you this one.
This is going to be Frontier by Julia Frank. Julia is a knitwear designer that works within the realm of deconstructing traditional knitwear ideas: she works with relatively fine yarns knitted at very loose gauge and with dropped-stitch patterns worked across large areas. Her work is a tiny bit more commercial now she is designing for Rowan: Frontier interprets the loose gauge and the dropped stitches within the context of a cropped summer cardigan. (Oh, and I also really, really like Julia Frank's Clara jumper from the recent Studio 26. Knitted bottom-up in the round with a yoke .. but this traditional construction just seems so fresh in Frank's hands.)
Anyway. Frontier. I am using Rowan Pima Cotton in "Bark". I am always wary of knitted with inelastic fibres like cotton or silk, but my hands are doing just fine. It has been a quick knit due to knitting a DK yarn on 5.5mm needles using a drop-stitch pattern. I had to adjust to the double whammy of a loose gauge and dropped stitches (either is fine, combined they are interesting). It helped when I changed from my customary circs to straight (bamboo) needles to stop the wraps getting tangled. I am just one ball into the project but I'm already at the arm hole shaping for the back.
In lieu of any photos of my two FOs, here is a photo of the delicious vegan date cake I had at Artisan Roast during one of my bike trips.
Yes, the bike arrived this week. I cannot begin to tell you what a difference having a bike has made to my emotional wellbeing.
When I lived in Denmark, I used to bike everywhere - it is simply part of the Copenhagen lifestyle - but I have been reluctant to get a bike here for a number of reasons (traffic & health being two major ones). Recently I have seen a rise in the number of people biking around Glasgow and I decided I might as well join them. I am so very glad I did. Apparently I never feel quite at home in a place before I can navigate it on a bike. Glasgow belongs to me now.
I am also very amused by the male bikers on their 17-gear racers who look at me with disdain as they race past me - and whose facial expressions turn positively green with sourness when this skirt-wearing lass on a three-gear classic ladies' bike catches up with them at the red light.
And, yes, I wear a helmet and I am significantly less suicidal on a bike than I was back in Copenhagen (where everything goes if you are biking). Don't worry.
Happiness is a red bike.