April 2010 Archives

I had meant to put these pictures up on Wednesday, but went to visit Sally in hospital (she broke her pelvis on Monday) instead. So I'm getting around to it now.



Here's the progress on the Tea Leaves cardigan. I've knit about 10 cm more since then. I'm not allowing myself to cast on anything else until I split it for the arms and body - the long rows of stockinette are a little dull for the school holidays.



I finished spinning the Hecate Angorino. Since finishing that spinning project, I've had out my WindWheel and have spun all 100 grams of the Alpaca/Gotland fibre I bought in New Zealand in under 2 days. I'll ply it tomorrow.

It's back to school on Monday for a very busy term 2.

I have been doing a lot of knitting, but it has mostly been on the baby blanket #3, which I'm hiding until it is gifted in about six weeks' time. I finished the blanket two weeks ago. I needed some quick, mindless knitting to get me to the end of the school term, so I dug out the purple merino silk handspun I've had in the stash so long that I just had to do a search of my own blog to find when I finished it (February 2007 - rather apt post title!). In just 11 days I turned the yarn into a Lacy Baktus Scarf. Dead easy.





It's a bit wobbly as the yarn isn't very evenly spun, but I can see me getting a lot of wear out of it in Winter.

Having reached the school holidays, I had some time to plan the next project - another cardigan, desperately required. Two of my cardigans have recently been "retired" as they are wearing so thin and/or have started coming apart, especially at the cuffs. One has even had a new cuff knitted for it before. I have no excuse for my lack of cardigans, except perhaps because my large-knitting-project-energy has all been poured into three successive baby blankets in the past 14 months (there do not appear to be any more in the near future, thank goodness!). And I have an embarrassment of riches in the stash set aside particularly for another three or four cardigans! I have duly pulled out the yarn that has been waiting the longest for the purpose - yarn that my Mother spun for me before I took up spinning (the paper slip in the bag says "September 2005"), and which I dyed in 2007. I would like it to be a cardigan before it is old enough to begin school...

I figured out the reason this yarn has been waiting so long is because I'm scared that there will not be enough and will run out before a garment is complete. Since I had forgotten there was 600 grams, and instead chose something based on a figure of 500 grams, I think I'll be okay. The chosen pattern is the Tea Leaves Cardigan, which is designed for a heavier yarn. So, as I typically do, I've had the calculator out and I've made adjustments for my lighter weight yarn.



The swatch is gorgeous. I cast on yesterday and am already half way down the yoke.

I've been at the Easter show today, demonstrating spinning for the guild, and will be there again tomorrow. More progress on the angorino that I've barely touched since the Summer holidays. I hope to chain ply the second bobbin tomorrow.