A long Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK and it followed it's normal pattern - everything shut down including me!
Due to weeks of burning the candle at both ends with work and knitting shows my body decided to rebel so instead of spending 4 days knitting and surfing the net I've been swallowing pain killers and resting due to an arthritis flare up.
I've finally managed to knit a few rows and am pleased with the progress on the rib jumper. The back is finished and I'm halfway up the front and enjoying the cables. In my twisted sense of logic I'm using Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk to knit a King Cole pattern.
The other project on the go is Caspian from Shorelines. I'm not sure about this , I chose to do the second colourway but am not happy with the way the colours are working out. I'm struggling to find gauge even after dropping 3 needle sizes and find it impossible to get a decent fair isle fabric when one of the yarns is aran weight and the other is 2 strands of DK. I think this one could be heading towards the frog pond!
Why when I hate knitting rib do I decide to knit a rib sweater?
Progress has been slow, partly as I've had to drop 3 needle sizes to get gauge and my hands don't like having to hold such small needles these days. I'm now on the back armholes and am hoping to get to start the front before I go to the show in Birmingham on Thursday. I'm looking forward to the journey time to memorise the cable pattern for the front.
The yarn is Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk but as she doesn't design patterns to fit me I'm adapting another pattern for Aran weight yarn. The yarn feels good to work with but I was not impressed to find an average of 2 joins per ball so far when the balls are only 65m. Photos soon when I've charged my camera.
The superb Ms P has decreed it's time I got my act together and had a proper blog! So she's taken my immature ramblings on previous efforts and come up with this set up for me - I only hope I can do it justice.
Not much knitting to report this weekend as my Mother has been visiting but I did manage a few more rows of the DB Alpaca Silk and have cast on the Harris Tweed Aran to see if I can get gauge for Caspian.
Neither of these projects come from stash but are from the prize yarn I got for the festive poncho. I'm supposed to be finishing off a number of projects but the siren call of new yarn has been irresistable.
Remember to keep your blog address, user name and password written down somewhere this time!!!
I think I've finally found my way back in - hope I can remember how to do this.
A quiet day at home until the stash pile slipped - the rest of the day spent finding buried treasure aka Colinette yarns; homespun angora and cashmere hidden under a pile of DK cottons.
I really do have to sort this lot out once and for all!
This was posted in September, after I finally got my act together and took the boxes to the post office and sent the baby blankets to their intended recipients.
There were 2 very happy mums and a very relieved me. I'm now left looking at all the odds and ends of DK cotton and there's only one solution - I'll have to knit more squares!!
The original idea came from me but the work came came 17 members of the Liberty's knitting group. The hardest part was keeping the secret. Jane knew of our plans to knit for Wendy so when we found out she was pregnant we had to keep a super-secret - making a second blanket.
Hugo's Blanket
For Baby Hugo
Seth's Blanket
I've finally faced up to my addiction to blogs and decided to start my own. I'm hoping that if I talk about my stash mountain I'll eventually get to use it all. A conservative estimate is that there is enough there to keep me going for at least 10 years - pity most of it is oddballs with no labels or I could have made some money flogging it on ebay.
I need creative ideas for speed knitting please!