Letting Go

I've been away for awhile. Tons of things going on at the shop. A little surprise is coming your way. Tell your stash that it's days are numbered.

On the knitting front, I had to give up the Rowan #7 sweater. I COULD NOT GET THE LACE PATTERN. ONLY 2 ROWS IN THE PATTERN. ONLY 9 STITCHES IN THE REPEAT. I blame seasonal affective disorder. My mind was too muddled with the hell that was this winter. Eventually I moved on to a cardigan in the spring/summer 2009 Verena Magazine. It's a cardigan with a very basic 4 st cable on the body and sleeves and the yoke is a lacey pattern. It is worked from the bottom up and joined in one piece from the neck. I opted to make the bottom all in one piece. The pattern has short rows on the front and back before you join all pieces for the yoke. A very interesting thing to do which will make it fit better. The grey yarn looks great. I expect to be wearing this sweater for the next thirty years. Very classic.

Off topic but on all of our minds...THE WEATHER. For Pete's sake people it's 70, it snows, it's 60 , it rains, it's 40 and windy. That all happened in 1 1/2 days! Every morning this week I had to look at my coats and make a decision. I had three or four ways to go: heavier coat, lighter scarf, lighter coat, heavier scarf, umbrella yes/no, boots yes/no, gloves yes/no. Thankfully my new morning routine is yoga and green tea or I would be giant ball of stress before leaving the house.

Big Plans Brought Low

I finished my Kinetic scarf from Fall 08 Knitty and it is love pure and simple. I held a lace weight mohair together with Karabella's DK Silk Merino and it is the softest, most luxuriant thing I have knit in a long time. I will definitely be making more things from the Karabella Silk Merino. It comes in a lace weight, too. Maybe a very lacey sweater for summer office wear in the frigid air conditioning.? A pale, icey blue?

With one project finished I could start another with head held high. A sweater for me from Rowan #7. Yes, Rowan #7. It was an era of shoulder pads, high-waisted pleated trousers, and most especially the models skipped and gambolled through the shoot. The models are happy in their knitwear, as it should be.

It is a cardigan with a very large ribbed border and then the top is lace. I have started and ripped back the lace pattern 4 times. I know it is always hard at the beginning of a lace pattern to get it all set up. It takes awhile to get it in your head. But this is a 9 stitch, 2 row repeat. Do you know how row 3 is different that row 1? It is offset by one stitch. So it is the same 9 stitches in row 1 and row 3. The beginning of the row is fine. I get to the end of row 3 or on my second repeat of row 1 and something is off. This is my tv watching project. It has to be easy. Sigh.

And so, to begin again.

Kathy