knitting neels

I lost my knitting mojo there for about 24 hours. It doesn’t sound like very long but it felt like an eternity! Sometimes having a good time during my time off takes as much out of me as working to get my time off. I’m still pretty tired, but nothing that tea, a mighty steak dinner and a good night’s sleep won’t cure. So here’s what I’ve been up to.

I finished up my first Thermal sleeve. Does it look narrow to you too? I am a little confused because it still fits. I feel as though my eyes deceive me. It wouldn’t be the first time, though 😛

I haven’t so much as looked at my sock since I got back from Galway but here’s how it looks anyway. Isn’t it just the funkiest thing ever? I’ll never get tired of those colours. I’m back to hiding the ball under the cushion.

And that job that I started on the train down to Galway still hasn’t been finished. Salina turned out to be much shorter than I realised! I hope the seam won’t be too noticeable. Doing this little job has re-awakened my love for Rowan’s Felted Tweed.

You don’t see Felted Tweed around very much. I love this Bluebell sweater from Stephanie Japel’s Fitted Knits knitted in it – I’m actually considering doing it in the same colour. It’s funny how colour can really affect your decisions. Seeing it in this yarn made me do a U-turn about this project.

And speaking of Fitted Knits, I’ve had my eye on a Puffed Sleeve Cardigan since I got the book. What a lovely Spring-Summer project! Last time I was at This is Knit I picked up two random balls of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK in a wonderful teal colour. There are lots of things you can use two balls for. After a lot of thinking about it last night – I don’t know why I bother, I was going to do it anyway – I swatched for the PSC in the cashmerino.

It’s a winner! Not only is the colour something that I can wear with lots of my clothes, but it is incredibly soft and snuggly. Perfect for pulling on over a little top in the shade during the summer. So my random purchase has actually turned out to be a deposit on a great project 😀

And there’s more! (startitis? moi?) That fine, noble skein of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sport has been calling my name – the one I bought with the teal cashmerino, in ‘Mixed Berries’. It is on its merry way to becoming a Moebius.

The colours! I can see a bare-footed man in shorts vigorously stomping on berries in a dye bath somewhere in Chicago! And let me tell you, for a worsted superwash wool, it is so soft. It even smells divine (don’t worry, I waited until I got home to stick my schnozz in it this time). I know that it doesn’t look like a Moebius right now. That’s because I’m doing it the old-fashioned way. I used a provisional cast on (see the yellow cotton?) and I’m going to knit just a plain garter stitch scarf until it is wide enough, then put in the twist and graft the end to the beginning. I’m using this method instead of the usual Moebius cast on because I wanted to be certain of its width. I’m going for a snug Moebius. I must remember to use garter stitch more often for variegated yarns – mine is starting to look a bit like shadow knitting!

I often have conversations with my old friend Stephen about knitting. He’s not a knitter but he regularly checks in here to see if I’m still alive during my busier times (obviously, my knitting will have to be pried from my cold dead hands before I stop blogging about it). I feel obliged to tell you, from him, that all that those headless shots of knitters displaying their wares? They are creepy. I laughed so hard when he told me this. I don’t remember when I stopped noticing that it is the fashion for knitters to not have heads. Anyway, we were talking about books and I was telling him how I can’t really read proper novels anymore because I get too involved. When I read Wuthering Heights, I got so obsessed and involved that I couldn’t finish it. You know when Heathcliff leaves and Cathy is in bits? It was too much for me. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t work. The same with those Hannibal Lecter books I love. I got another one in the series but I can’t bring myself to start it. I read Casino Royale by Ian Fleming lately, and considered it a blessing that it is such a short book. I’m one of these people who ‘read for trauma’ instead of pleasure. I can’t look at knitting books in bed because I get very restless and antsy. It’s gotten to the stage where the only books I can read are those by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. They’re a nice compromise: they’re books and they’re about knitting but not so much so that I can’t sleep. In Knitting Rules, she has a nice chapter on Shawls, which I read last night. It solved my dilemma over what to do with my Colinette Mohair. I have 175m of it and I want a shawl, but a shawl that just uses up the 175m. That’s all. Solution? A triangular shawl that keeps growing until I run out of wool.

Problem solved!

Time for tea, methinks.

PS: A lovely knitter from Galway has just gotten in touch with me (sadly, blogless) to tell about a group they have there. Horray! I won’t be knitting alone! This news has really made my day. Ok, I lie, this news and the Moebius have really made my day 😀