Skip to main content

Finsihing things, starting things and sitting in the park

I finished the Elizabeth Zimmerman February sweater on two needles, out of my hand dyed wool. I think its really cute. The main thing I noticed when knitting this is what a long way I have come in knitting lace this year. I made the grown up version in February and I really struggled with the lace. Even on the sleeves I put markers every two repeats. Now my mind has been trained to remember lace better, and even knit a fair bit of this drunk. Although I had to put it down on Christmas day, because I found myself squinting at it, closing one eye so that there would be only one baby jumper in front of my blurry eyes. In fact the only time this went wrong was at knit night, and I apologise for spending the last half hour I was there muttering under my breath and occasionally raising my head to cry "it's not working. Why? WHY??"
.

I also finished the yarn for the Bitteroot shawl. It's from a stunning EGMTKs braid.

Here is is in all its stages:

Although I think the final yarn is prettier than this, photographing yarn is HARD.

As for the starting things, I cast on for Stephanie Purl McPhee's tulip socks. I have been preparing wool from my corriedale fleece to spin and this afternoon I am going to start that. i am very excited because it is beautiful, and Leon is pretty excited about me handspinning a jumper for him. At least I think he is. Or at least he should be.

And today the weather was beautiful and sunny and we went and played frisbee in the park, and then sat under a tree while I worked the intarsia heel of the second sock. if there is one thing I've learnt it's that intarsia should be done with your eyes on the work. Although I did promise my Uncle a Kafe Fassett jumper, and if I do follow through with that I'll have to learn to intarsia under all circumstances.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Geogradiant MKAL Part 1 - that was unexpected (spoilers)

Stephen West released the first MKAL clue on Thursday night. I started knitting it without looking at spoilers. When I got up on Friday he had sent through an "alternative" clue one. I then went and had a look at the spoiler thread to try to work out what was going on. Which was that some people thought the pattern looked like a "German hate symbol". I knit on anyway, since I was half-way through. Then he took down the original clue, replacing it with a mitred square in garter stitch. The Ravelry forums and Instagram are a complete shit-show, even though Rav is being moderated. It's been a bit disheartening, having something that is usually quite light and fun weighed down with all this. I admire Stephen's quick and sensitive response to this drama. I also feel that anything can look like anything if you squint. To me this looks like a Celtic knot. I think mine is pretty, and I'll knit on through all crises. 

Linky Wednesday - the one with the drama

The drama about the Stephen West MKAL  continues, and I can't be bothered with it. It's meant to be a fun, interesting, communal knit and and that's not what this year has turned in to. Stephen has done his best in a difficult situation, but I'm just not feeling it. Meanwhile, Israel is at war, and we (as a country) are going to vote "no" on a referendum that asks for basic consideration for Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders.  So yeah, lots of turmoil here. It's very tiring. I'm knitting a sock and considering what happens next.  Luckily the reading was dramatic in a good way. I'm reading a NetGalley review copy of Last Summer at the Lake House and it's great.  Super dramatic family drama about three sisters who loose their father unexpectedly and then find out that the family has secrets. I 've nearly finished it and I don't know what I'm going  to read next. I've got a bit of a break between review books, so maybe Sta

Mussleburgh musings

I made a Mussleburgh hat earlier in the year, and even though I thought I was following the directions exactly it did not come out quite right.  It was a little bit loose. My head is 51 cm, my gauge was 7 stitches, so according to the pattern I knit the right size. It's also a little bit shorter than I would like it. Too long for a beanie, too short for a good turn-up. I couldn't work out why. I still wore it, but it was not quite right. When I decided to knit one for Elise I knew I wanted to make it longer, and tighter. After I finished Elise's (with 24 fewer stitches) I realised something about mine: Now, this is a knit tube. I know how to knit tubes. When I make sleeves or socks, they don't balloon out in the middle. So I decided to reblock it. The instructions actually specifically say to fold it inside each other after blocking, but I probably folded it and dried it on my head, because that's how I block my hats. Not this time: Now it's longer and thinner