Yesterday, I knitted nearly an entire sleeve. Unbelievable, I hear you cry. Inconceivable! I assure you, I speak the truth!
…If the truth is a sleeve that denies one’s hand of blood. Let this be a lesson to fellow knitters not to compute figures late at night. For some reason, I decided the amount of stitches I wanted for the cuff was 8% of my body stitches and not 25% (anybody who has knit according to the Zimmermann percentage system will see where I was going wrong). So I ended up with 20 stitches and not the 60 I needed!… which is totally correct if I were knitting a sweater for a hamster. Sigh. Back to the drawing board. I must ring up Paddy Power and see what the odds are for me finishing this sweater on time for Saturday’s birthday.
All this wonderfully incorrect knitting was accomplished on a spontaneous trip out to TIK. Resistance is futile… more so than ever since Dublin Bus started running a service across town from my front door to their front door (meant to be maybe? That, or there’s definitely a Ballymun knitter controlling north side buses). Anyway, it was so nice to catch up with the girls and drool over all their new stuff. Have you heard of these things called yarn magnets? They naturally repose in knitters’ shopping bags and lure yarn inside when you’re not looking…
Fyberspates Blue Faced Leicester
This stuff is the business. It is a gorgeous 100% blue faced leicester wool and at €4.50 for a 112m skein, you really can’t go wrong. This will soon be my new winter hat – a tam, actually, from Knitting Nature that I very deliberately gave into. What a wonderful book! Most ‘wonderful books’ just have some decent patterns and nice photography. This is something far, far better. Not only are the patterns and photography good but Gaughan’s premise for the book is thoroughly explored. Each chapter is devoted to a specific shape or form that occurs naturally. Gaughan discusses the scientific whys and hows at the start and then shows how the shape influenced each design in the section. It is completely nerdy and I love it!
I have frequently complained to Alb that the application of maths in the real world is never properly taught at school. It is really inspiring to see Gaughan’s take on certain aspects and has prompted me to explore further into Koch curves, stacking forms and all the rest of it. Intrigued? There are still some copies left!
Hummm, I believe a sweater’s worth of that exact wool got magneted into my bag a while ago. It’s now just waiting for insiration…
Can I ask you where you bought your lovely wool ?
I have yet to touch BFL, but it looks so very soft. Great colors, too.
Sorry to hear about the sleeve. I thought I’d commented on it already, but I guess I forgot to hit ‘submit’. Dang! I’m guessing that since it’s for your dad, you didn’t stop and try the sleeve on every few rounds, huh?