knitting neels

I can’t seem to stop knitting. I have been a bit under the weather over the last week – I think it’s weather related. Our weather has gone from hot to cold and wet and now back to sunny-but-cool. It has been a bit of a struggle to get back into the swing of practice so it’s nice to have been productive on at least one front.

I finished my Drops alpaca cardigan. This was my world cup knitting and, even though I thought it would be an unachievable goal, I completed it easily. Got the sleeves set in before half time and now all it needs is a good blocking.

I am still a bit mad about forgetting the buttonholes but the garment fits so nicely and the yarn was so lovely to work with that I can’t really stay mad at it for very long.

I finished up Audrey as well. I was sort of putting off finishing it because I was certain it was going to be too big and floppy. But when I got the button bands and neckband on, I realised that it fit really well.

All I need now are buttons. I am thinking about putting a hook and eye at the very top since I forgot to put in a buttonhole. I will post more detailed, modelled shots when these two are blocked and finished completely. I made a few mods in both which I’d like to document for others to use.

I have been trying to work my way through my backlog of almost-FOs. I did finish off the Minimalist cardigan but really, it’s been a disaster from start to finish. It is the most ill-fitting sweater I have made in a long time and even with my mods for the sleeves, they turned out enormous. But you can’t win ’em all so I have put it away in the hopes that someone will appear on my horizon that I can give it to. In the meantime, I have dug out my only other languishing sweater – ole Henley Perfected.

All this needs is a sleeve and a half. It got put away because winter came in rather quickly last year and I wanted to move on to woollier things. The yarn is Calmer a stretchy cotton blend from Rowan. It’s usually quite expensive – about €8 a ball – but I picked up a bag of 10 for about €40 last summer in Galway. It’s a beautiful colour and is really lovely to work with.

But really, my tricot du jour has to be Veera’s new pattern, the 3/4 hap shawl. True, when I saw the pattern the weather had just broken and true, when I cast on, it was pouring rain outside. But now that I have started, wild angry crocheters couldn’t get me to put this down.

The green is Malabrigo Sock in Lettuce and I bought it originally to join in on the Annis knitalong at This is Knit. I kind of put off casting on because of the huge amount of stitches to start with and the rumours of nupps. In the meantime, this little gem appeared and I knew what I had to do.

The purple is Brown Sheep Nature Spun Fingering which has been patiently waiting in the wings. It’s a pretty stark contrast but really, purple and green belong together, don’t they?