knitting neels

Yesterday, I just pinged out. It’s probably the best way to describe it. However, I did get to meet the excellent Steve, Kev, Siobhán and Donny for dinner in the evening so it wasn’t all bad. Today, despite feeling worse, I just got up and got stuck into my work because the sooner I start, the sooner I’ll be finished! I can’t do any more right now. I’m feeling pretty drained.

What better reason to start a new pair of socks! Yay! I have had enough of socks that use charts for the moment, and I’ve wanted to knit a pair of socks using the Lion Brand Magic Stripes ball that Robin sent me for SP8, and I’ve really wanted to break in my 2.5mm Addis that I got in Berlin.

Magic Loop socks. They can’t be beat.

I’ve had a hankering for a more solid knit for the last while. I love mohair, there’s no doubt about it, but there’s something just so satisfying about knitting with something a bit thicker. At the same time, I’m feeling pretty reluctant to jump into something very woolly while it is still hitting twenty degrees outside. Hence my attraction to this little number…

Take a really close look at the lace bodice. Is it just me, or does it look like alien heads to you too?

It was on the cover of the summer Interweave Knits. First off, I gotta say I have some issues with the pattern. For one, it doesn’t have a medium size. It goes from about 33 1/2″ to a 39″ size. I never understand patterns that do this. I’m going to generalise here: the majority of women are about 36″ around, give or take. Why omit a 36″ size? Anyway, I found a KAL for the pattern and alot of the posts there soothed my anxieites. For most 36″ people, the 33″ size fitted pretty well. Also, it looks better on real people than on the model. This is encouraging. Lastly, the absence of a schematic from the pattern had me worried. Almost everybody who participated in the KAL consistently made their top 4 inches longer, so I’ll keep an eye out on the length before doing any funny armhole business.

The yarn I decided to use is Patons Washed Haze. There were some pretty cottons to choose from (especially considering I was in Hickey’s), but cotton can be heavy enough. This is a top I would like to wear to a performance master class or to a lesson, so it needs to be fairly light. I entertained a black shiny acrylicy-viscosey fibre, but it would probably be horrible to play in. I get very warm when I play (understatement: wet from head to toe is more accurate but also more yucky). So! The Patons is 50% cotton, 50% acrylic and has a lovely suede feel to it. It has good stitch definition and the resulting fabric has good structure, so I’m hoping the lace bodice will maintain its shape. At e3.50 / 120m a ball => less than e20 for the whole project, I figured I couldn’t go wrong.

I hope my top comes out looking like alien heads. It would be pretty funny and also a nod to the hours of Star Trek I’ll be watching while knitting it 😀

Sleeves! Sleeves! Get your sleeves! All sizes from chimp to orangutan!

TWENTY gruelling inches of sleeve. At least my arms won’t be cold :}

Fancy reading something else? Check out here (knitting), here (spinning), and here (talented male knitter who not only knows how to knit, but also knows how to use his 50mm lens!). Go on, check them out!