knitting neels

Hi everybody! Apologies for the long silence. College has been very busy but thankfully there has still been time for knitting. These days I have been mostly knitting the Girl Friday cardigan from Knitty.

I would have finished this at least three weeks ago only I was struck by what can only be described as utter stupidity when casting on for the body. I didn’t want a 37″ body and decided to take 20 stitches from either side of the side seams. This left me with a very peculiar body. Unfortunately I didn’t really notice until I had completely finished the body and grafted the shoulders together! Anyway, I ripped it all out and reknit the 37″ size as written. It is a much more sensible size and I am almost finished the shawl collar and button band. Hopefully I will finish it off at the weekend and tell you all about it in more detail.

In the meantime, I just had to cast on for a new pair of mittens. My brother gave me a very beautiful chocolate-brown skein of hand- and naturally-dyed sock yarn for Christmas. So, when I saw these mittens, I knew what it was destined for. I wanted a nice stone colour to go with the brown. Initially I chose a cream-brown Noro Silk Garden Sock but it didn’t match the thickness or texture of the other yarn very well. In the end I found a King Cole 4ply merino in the yarn shop in Rathmines that matched perfectly.

These are going slowly at the moment because I am not the most attentive in the evenings these days.

What else? I knocked out a Shroom for a quick hit.

The only problem about asking Alb to take a photo of a hat is that he takes a photo of me. Still, you get the idea. If I were to make it again, I would probably shorten the rib a bit and make the body of the hat longer. Speaking of Alb, I also finished off his jumper but that really deserves a post of its own!

Mostly though, my biggest WIPs have been what I am working on for school: Brahms D minor violin sonata, Beethoven piano concerto (the 4th!), Copland duo for flute and piano, Fauré Dolly suite (piano duet), Bach English Suite (the 2nd! my favourite)… and literally a million songs that I play for singers to make money. I am working as an accompanist for NUIM (Maynooth university) this term, too. It is all going really well, though, and miraculously I manage to make a living whilst being very much a full-time student. I have made some decisions regarding what I will specialise in, based on what I have found out during the first term, and it’s made my life a lot easier!