knitting neels

Yesterday, I finally addressed something that had been bothering me for a long time. Remember that doctorate that I was awarded a bursary to do? I’m not doing it anymore and I’m going to take a break from playing solo piano stuff for a while. I realised that the doctorate would end up taking me furthest away from everything that I really wanted, so what’s the point in spending all that time and money on it? I’ve got other fish to fry.

Fish number one

There are discrepancies in my dyelot for this fish. I striped it in for the second sleeve and it worked really well. I’m not so certain of how it’s working for the body. To me, it looks really obvious but from a distance, the eye compensates. I am half way down the body – I finished my waist shaping last night – so I should probably just finish it up. If it is absolutely appalling, I will rip it out and do it again.

Fish number two

This sock is getting more of a look in than it should be because my other projects are currently too large to bring on the bus! The colours are eliciting a lot of remarks. I always feel that by knitting wild coloured socks, I’m flying in the face of utilitarian sock knitting.

Fish number three

These arrived in the post yesterday. Sweater Design in Plain English by Maggie Righetti and Knitting New Scarves by Lynne Barr. The former is pretty self-explanatory; the latter shouldn’t intrigue me but it does. I’m not really a scarf knitter. But the twenty seven scarves in this book aren’t really scarves, they’re exercises in construction. Inspired by buildings, the resulting projects are challenging to knit and fun to wear. Highly recommended if you want some fresh thinking. The Maggie Righetti book is quite a tome and I’m going to reserve my opinion until I’ve read enough of it.

There are, of course, many other fish but for now I’m going back to my knitting with a cup of tea. Joy!