Placed Cable Aran

Yesterday I decided that I wanted to start another sweater project next to my interminable 4ply cotton summer top. My first impulse was to buy yarn for the printed silk cardigan, which I really want to knit. But then I decided to download the excel file of my stash from ravelry instead. Faced with the enormous amount of sweater quantity yarn I already own, I decided that maybe I should just find a pattern for a yarn I already own instead. So I decided to knit the placed cable aran pullover from the fall 2007 issue of interweave knits instead.

I got the yarn I am using from my mother, who bought it in Hungary. It is a bit of a mystery yarn - it is called Petra and was made in Turkey, but there is no other branding on it. It is only 20% wool, but it feels very nice and soft. It is also a very nice pale pink, my photo doesn't really do it justice. I knit up a swatch while reading for work (isn't it great to be able to work and knit at the same time!) and it felt nice to work with. At least it will be easy to look after. I will, however, wash the swatch before I start knitting, as I really don't want any disasters.

The postman rings again

Lately I haven't been wanting to shop for yarn like crazy, so my knitting budget for this month looks a lot more healthy. So I decided to try and find the autumn 2007 issue of Interweave Knits before it was too late and ended up buying it from a lovely lady on ravelry at a very reasonable price, which is great, given that others have apparently spent a fortune on ebay on used copies. Originally I wanted it for the minimalist cardigan, but now I really like the look of the placed cable aran. It would be the perfect weekend pullover for next autumn. Whenever I get an actual issue of IK I always like different patterns than the ones I like looking at their web site or ravelry. It is just different seeing the large glossy printed pictures.

I also bought Knitting on the Road by Nancy Bush, because someone was selling a damaged copy on Amazon at a reduced price. The damage turned out to be minimal both to the book (dent on the cover) and my budget. And I love, love, love the patterns.

I promise I will post about knitting and not shopping soon.

Knitting Polygamy

I seems to be unable to keep to one knitting project at a time. Which means that I haven't had many finished objects lately. Which again makes me feel a bit frustrated with my knitting. At the moment I have two summer tops, three pairs of socks, three scarves and a hat in various stages in unfinishedness. Two of these have not made it past a swatch yet. That, to me, seems like a lot. Maybe I need to stick with one main project with one side project for a while and put everything else on hold.

Yak, not Yuck.

My resolution NOT to buy excessive quantities of yarn is severely tested by some yak / merino mix on colourmart. Maybe I should unsubscribe from the mailing list. But how about a lovely yak cardigan or sweater of my own design? So tempting...

Mail surprise

There was an Amazon package in the post today. I suspected an order on my husband's part, since I haven't ordered anything lately. But then again, he uses the my amazon account to place orders and I probably would have noticed an email thanking me for ordering 'A Very Boring Book on Finance'. So it was almost like a surprise gift - although it turned out it was a gift from me!

I ordered Vogue Ultimate Knitting about two months ago and it was out of stock. I must have somehow missed the email notifying me that it was finally dispatched (I ordered a few gifts for others recently so I probably thought the email was for that...) I haven't had that much time to look at it yet, but this book looks brilliant. Pages and pages of techniques all clearly laid out. It seems like it will be a reference book I'll use over and over again.

We were also away on a brief sailing trip to Greece and when I got home I had my sock yarn of the months, some stitch markers and needles from a ravelry karma swap waiting for me. What fun!

Instead of joining a sock club, I thought it would be nice to try a different brand every month. This month I ordered some lovely yarn from the yarn yard in the one-off colour "surprise": a heathery, brownish, reddish, purplish variegated yarn. It seems like a perfect colour for some autumnal socks when the seasons change again... Delivery was ultra fast and the yarn feels gorgeous.

The stitch markers are from See Jayne Knit look beautiful and appear very well made. They already grace one of my knitting projects :-) Finally, the double pointed needles from BatOutOfHell are the result of a swap on the UKarma group on Ravelry. So despite the fact I haven't been doing much knitting related shopping this month (only the stitch markers and the sock yarn - doing well!) I can't complain about a lack of packages.

Spring is in the air (and in the mail)

After a cold miserable Easter (perfectly spent having leisurely meals with friends and knitting on the sofa) it seems like spring is finally here. And to complement the weather on Monday the spring edition of Interweave Knits has finally landed in my mailbox.

I subscribed to IK over the winter and I was looking forward to my first issue. Which never arrived. IK extended my subscription by an issue and I ended up buying the magazine from Amazon US, as this was still cheaper than ordering it from an online store in the UK. Sometimes Amazon US stuff takes ages to get here, but this time it was quite fast (just over one working week). I quite like the printed silk cardigan and the auburn camp shirt. There is a good likelihood I will knit printed silk. I am waiting to see a few finished examples of the camp shirt on ravelry before I commit to knitting another garment on tiny needles. Oh and I might knit the leggings from skinny knits as a pair of knee-high socks. People on ravelry were complaining about the sizing, but how different from normal sock sizing can it be? Just increase and decrease like in the Nancy Bush patterns or in Knitting Without tears.

Which reminds me of my vintage me-shaped summer top project. It is going well. I put the stitches on some scrap yarn (ok, the end of a ball of yarn from another project that is currently not in use) and tried it on. It fits. I am happy. However, I did decide to rip a few rows back, since I wasn't happy with the pattern / position of a contrast colour stripe I decided to add. But as I promised myself that I will not be afraid of ripping back in order to get a great looking top, I ripped. It shouldn't take me long at all to get to the waist shaping. There the fun starts - I can see more ripping in the future.

Mental note to self: Add a lifeline of scrap yarn before I start to decrease for the waist!