Just a reminder that today is the last day to enter my Autism Awareness Month drawing and win yarn! I’ve only had a few entries thus far (clearly my blog and yarn incentive are not terribly far reaching) so your odds are pretty decent, should you wish to get in under the wire.
My long suffering camera seems to be finally and totally not working, so no pictures of, you know, knitting, at Knitting Kninja until the happy day when we find the fundage to purchase a brand new camera. This is pretty irritating, honestly, because what is a knitting blog sans pictures? I have a pile of finished projects that I’d love to show you, and a bunch of partway finished objects, but they must remain mythical for now. Proof will hopefully follow in time.
SO, the main project I’m currently devoting myself to is Joelle’s Favorite Yoke Sweater, from KnitKnit, in Dream in Color Smooshy. The color is Spring Tickle, which is a bright yellow green, though my particular skeins have a bit of brownish gold in there, too. And it’s going really, really fast, which is nice. I was concerned that fingering weight yarn would take forever to knit, but Smooshy is smooth and moves fast on the needles. It’s a good, economic sub for the Koigu called for, and I think it has a very similar look. I’ve made a few mods to the original pattern (darts, extra garter ridges around the waist ribbing), but nothing major, though I did briefly consider going with a U neck, which would have been a pretty major mod. I’ve decided to stick with the yoke and maybe make the top a little wider than in the original pattern. It should be done this week, I’d think.
Edit: Doh! I forgot I had a picture of the Yoke Sweater, taken much earlier in the process, and before my camera died. Here it is. I’ve since added sleeves and begun on the yoke. It looks like I’ll have quite a bit of yarn left over. I’m using two skeins of Smooshy.
I’ve also been knitting a pile of teacher gifts for the end of the year, all in Malabrigo, which I think works well. It’s soft, comes in many pretty colors, and half a skein is enough for a very nice gift. So far I’ve made a crocheted cravat and a cabled scarf, both from One Skein, a My So Called Scarf, and most of a Koolhaas. I’m deciding between a Bainbridge scarf and a Tudora for the last project. I hope that expressing my appreciation in handknits is a good idea, but I think I picked patterns that non knitters can appreciate and that flatter most folks. I let the boys pick the yarn colors to suit their teachers, so there’s a little extra there, I think.
I’ve been looking over and cleaning out my queue on Ravelry. I’m one of those huge queue folks, which is fairly impractical. Many people have neat, tidy little queues, very realistic. I add anything I figure I might knit at some point. Then, later, I come back and try to narrow it down to what I’m really going to knit. But even then, I end up with tons of stuff in line to be knit, more sweaters than one person ever really needs. So today I’m looking at the sweaters in my queue and trying to sort them into categories. I find I have a lot of either/or sweaters, as in, if I knit one of them, I most likely won’t knit the other one, because they’re rather similar. So here are a number of my either/ors.
The 1937 Daliet Blouse OR Global Warming – I could probably knit both of these, in different materials, and have two nice shirts, but they are very similar. And either one could make a dent in my overwhelming collection of Rowanspun 4 ply. I’m leaning toward Global Warming at the moment, but I really like both of them.
Cherry OR the Swan Lake Cardigan – Both of these are lovely, could be knit in lightweight Spring yarns, and go well with a lot of different clothes. Cherry has the weight behind it, in that I love Anna Bell’s style, and every single one I’ve seen knit has been gorgeous, but on the other hand, I already have the pattern for Swan Lake, which can be a deciding factor in a lazy moment.
The Lush and Lacy Cardigan OR the Gallery Jacket – At first glance, these don’t have a ton in common, but I think it unlikely that I’d need or use more than one short sleeved jacket, and I’d probably knit both of these in wool or a wool blend. I love both, and I think one short sleeved wool jacket would be handy for Spring and early Autumn, but more than one is probably overkill. The difference in style makes it hard to choose between them.
Enid OR Tangled Yoke – Both of these are the sort of cardigan I’d wear nearly everyday if I had them. I could probably live happily with both, and in the end, I may make both. But they are two that are similar enough in style that I might only want to make one. I alternate a lot between cardigans and hoodies, and it might make more sense to whip up a fun hoodie after one of these.
Renaissance OR Willow – Both are big ol’ coats by Kim Hargreaves featured in Rowan’s A Yorkshire Fable. Both are warm and woolly and belted. One has a massive amount of intarsia, which drives me nuts to knit, but which looks gorgeous. The other was knit by me before and then felted into oblivion. I love both, and they’d be very different to knit, but the end result is pretty darn similar. Two of these, especially here, especially when I have a lovely red coat and a warm brown swing coat, would be massive overkill.
There are other things in my queue that I’m not certain I’ll make, like Sahara. I have the pattern, and I like it, but I’m not sure I actually want the top for myself. I’d never spend the money to get the recommended Tilli Tomas yarn, and I haven’t liked the ones knit in other yarns quite as much. I put seasonal ideas into the queue, figuring that then I have the idea on hand, should I wish to make a tank top, or a woolly coat, but without being certain that I’ll make any of them.
So that’s what I’m thinking about right now. Oh, and since pictureless posts are boring, I’ll try to scan in pictures from my frightening collection of vintage knitting magazines for upcoming posts. Au revoir!
