Green Goodness
I'm so ridiculously pleased with my new cardigan (Rav link).
I used Berocco Ultra Alpaca in "Pea Soup" and Fearthainn's handspun. The idea was to have a garterstitch yoke in handspun wool and then hopefully have enough to incorporate it into the cardigan's edgnings. It worked beautifully.
I used The Garter Yoke Cardigan as my template but actually did not use the pattern itself except for the yoke math as we are talking about a bogstandard top-down raglan (which I can pretty much knit in my sleep). I did pay extra attention to my gauge as Berocco Ultra Alpaca tends to stretch and flomp. I went down a needle size and also brought some negative ease into play. Again, it worked beautifully.
The only bad aspects about this cardigan? Firstly, that I have finished knitting it because knitting it was so damn awesome. Secondly, that I had a bad experience with a button-seller on eBay which effectively put this cardigan into hibernation for four weeks. Eventually I went with different buttons but boo to you, eBay lady.
Photos were taken today at Glasgow's Kelvingrove Museum because the weather didn't permit any frolicking about in the park. Thank you, Other Half.
But Then Again..
I could show you a photo of my recently started Ishbel, but I ripped it out ten minutes ago when I realised that dark wool + lace knitting + stressed Ms Bookish = constantly being two stitches short (and then having three stitches too much). I could show you a picture of my recently completed cardigan which is so pretty, so soft and so green, but my personal Official Photographer guy has been busy and a photo shoot won't happen until the weekend.
I could show you my latest yarn acquisition, but 2400 yrds of cream laceweight lambswool on a cone? Not that photogenic.
I could show you my shopping list for Denmark, but my mind keeps changing at the moment. Do I really need more laceweight - even if it's Faroese or Icelandic? Do I want to lose my cool over the Danish 40% sale on practically all DROPS yarns which is going on throughout May? Do I want an Amimono kit or a Geilsk kit? And what about trying new brands (to me) like Karen Noe (click on "kvalitetsgarn") or Marianne Svit? But do I actually need more yarn?
I really need a holiday.
Why It's Bad To Know Other Knitters
I blame Bells.
I was sitting here enjoying a cup of coffee, having a spot of lunch and then I began reading Bells' love letter to Ishbel (a shawl pattern by everybody's favourite Scottish knitting pixie, Ysolda Teague). Bells' paen to Ishbel wore away at me and before I knew it I too had purchased the pattern. Shock, horror.
I'm totally justifying the purchase to myself by saying "Well, I need a portable project to take with me to Denmark" and the project would also be a stash-busting exercise, as I am the proud owner of a great deal of laceweight and fingering weight yarns. I have singled out two different yarns which would work perfectly in each their own way.
The top cake is Fyberspates Faery Lace in a one-off colour way purchased at a Fyberspates trunk show last year. 1200 yrds of soft turquoise, sea green and cream. The bottom cake is is 2ply merino which I bought in Copenhagen last year. 440 yrds of rich chocolate brown softness. At the moment I'm leaning towards the latter, although the Faery Lace continues to haunt my imagination.. Every time I open the storage box, I look down at it and think "Oh, turquoisey cobweb .. whatever am I going to do with you?".
I have completely omitted to talk about what is currently on my needles. Geno is no more: it was a case of the right yarn and the right pattern in the wrong colour being knitted up at the wrong time.
I'm knitting up the Cafe au Lait mittens in Rowan Wool Cotton to match a beret I made from the same yarn. Not only am I deeply in love with twisted rib - it looks so elegant! so crisp! - but I'm also in love with Wool Cotton - the stitch definition! its softness! the marled grey!
I'm also working on my handspun yoke cardigan. I'm almost done with the first sleeve, which means I only have one sleeve and the button band to go. I'm thinking I should be able to finish that before my fabled trip to Viking Land.
My fellow knitter-in-crime and good friend, Kathleen, is churning out one inspirational project after another at the moment. She recently finished a stunning, stunning hap shawl in plant-dyed cashmere/wool from a indie dyer on the Isle of Skye. A few weeks ago I tried on the hap shawl and I had to fight my urge to just run away with it. I have been taking a long, hard look at my stash and I think I can make myself a hap shawl out of my amassed collection of New Lanark (I might have to order an additional skein or two - what hardship!). I have also been eyeing Kathleen's striped shoulder shawl (rav link) and her Girasole. Seriously inspirational stuff, I tell you.
Why it's bad to know other knitters? Too many ideas, too little time.
Relationship Status: Good (Once More)
If you subscribe to my Twitter feed you will already have been privy to a major relationship crisis. Last night I was not talking to and was close to breaking up with knitting. It was bad. Seriously. Looking back it was inevitable: it was late, I had been snappy most of the day and then I stopped paying attention. I stopped paying attention to stitch count, I didn't read the pattern and when I realised something was wrong, I began using foul language. I ripped back, ripped back much too far, tried picking up stitches, saw stitches drop, ripped back further and ..
.. then I had a Boyfriend Intervention. "Listen, I think you should head off to bed because this is not working and I don't think you can make it work tonight, okay? You're getting upset and you really shouldn't get upset over knitting."
Knitting and I are now back talking to each other. Actually, we are more than talking to each other. We're back being soppy and gooey. I have knitted the rows I ripped back and I'm also paying attention to the pattern once more. It's not that complicated, really. I just missed the bit where I'm supposed to do yarn-overs a row earlier than I thought I would. No biggie. I love knitting lace. Doing extra yarn-overs is a pleasure.
Sleep definitely helped as did a healthy dose of relationship therapy (i.e. several episodes of knitting podcasts) and tea. Life's too short to bear grudges - escpecially against something as incredibly lovely and rewarding as knitting.
And .. relax.
They have suspected it for a long time and now our neighbours are sure: Casa Bookish is a really weird household. Taking photos of brickwork? Yes, weird but it could be for an art project. Taking photos of rusty iron gates? Quite weird, but could just be interested in getting stuff fixed. Photographing a bit of knitting? Totally and utterly weird.
The project? Ah, I'm glad you asked. I have finally begun knitting Geno from Rowan 43 after procrastinating for about a year. I started it some days ago and have been knitting up a storm .. on size 2.75mm needles which means I have about 8 inches done. It is not exactly an instant gratification project, but it is gratifying nonetheless. I'm using Rowan Fine Milk Cotton in "Water Bomb" (a duck's-egg-blue) and the yarn is surprisingly velvety. It's a good summer project.
True to fashion I'm obsessing over which buttons to use. I have bought some bog-standard mother-of-pearl buttons from John Lewis, but they are rather .. bog-standard. So I began sorting through my vintage button stash and came up with various possibilities.
In the top-left corner you get some fake-ivory buttons, on the right you can juuust make out some carved mother-of-pearl(?) flowers with some nice staining and on the bottom you get some utterly adorable red plastic flowers (1960s?). I rather fancy the red flowers but I only have four of those and the pattern calls for at least six. I'm also very, very, very taken by these buttons found on Etsy (of course).
Maybe I should just keep knitting?
Maybe I should just do that and relax a bit seeing as the majority of this weekend has involved me poking about the inside of our PC. Long story short: what I thought was a relatively simply problem with overheating turned out slightly more complicated. I'm now extremely tired of computer parts salesmen ignoring me and talking to D. exclusively - just because I'm a woman. Unfortunately (for them) I'm also the computer savvy one, so their über-complicated "you need a new motherboard" sales talk with D. was all in vain. Anyhow, new fan-cradle and CPU fan has been installed and I resisted the lure of shiny new RAM.
PS. This entry has been written on-and-off whilst renegade kids, the Fire Brigade and the Police have been passing by our door. I am in dire need of relaxation now. Knitting, here I come.