Baaaaaad Skein

Man - I have had such trouble getting Bricca off the ground - or at least, out of the skein. I've cast on half a dozen times. I joined the knitting with a twist, ripped it out and knit the set-up round - Rnd 2 - at least 3 times. Ugh. I am blaming the way the skein was wound at the factory, combined with the softness of this plush merino, cashmere and microfiber blend. Three slippery fibers who want to wander all over the place are a natural for tangling and misbehaving. I will not, of course, blame the fact that I made this first mess after a nice dish of shrimp scampi with a crisp white wine, while watching a movie.  

I finally had to give up on this hot mess, take it off the needles and leave it in a heap. When I am not wining (and whining) I will untangle it and put things to right. I will have to do quite a bit of frogging because I am sure I will need every inch of yarn I have to finish Bricca. Eventually, all swatches will be sentenced to the frog pond. 

But at last I have the beginnings of a sweater and am motoring along nicely. This is because I rewound the skeins with my trusty blue ball winder, releasing this long stored yarn from any bad karma left over from being rejected for 6 years. In it's new cake it feels free to become all that it can become - which is 15 arcade patterns sweetly marching round the needle. 

How I wish I could stay home today and as BD says, "just ka-nit ka-nit ka-nit." Especially since it's once again raining. But a nice long weekend is coming soon. There will be ample knitting time then. I am sure I can't complete this sweater in 4 weeks, but I bet I can have it done before Christmas.

Two Swatches

I've always loved these richly textured all over stitch patterns in the Barbara Walker books. This one is easy - 16 stitches and 16 rows and it's nothing but ribs broken with garter stitch bands. And it's beautiful. I want scrunch it in my fingers to bite into it.   In my InnerDesignEye I can see this in a sleeve - I can almost see it in a pullover sweater body. My only concern is that it is a lot of knitting and purling. Lots of opportunities to make mistakes if I have to stay alert while knitting the approximately 60K stitches that go into a long sleeved pullover. Easy to fix, yes, but I don't think this will be brainless knitting. And to make sure it didn't ride up in front I would have to make it slightly oversized. Big Knitting in somewhat Big Yarn on a slightly Big Body? Maybe. Maybe not. But oh la! I love this stitch pattern.

Then there is this pretty cable. Running down both sides of a button band or perhaps centered with a little twisted stitch cable on either side of it - perhaps a twin running down the center back - it would be just enough to make a plain sweater interesting. A plain, almost brainless project that could be toted around. Something it would be easy to add short row bust darts to. 

The stockinette stitch and row gauge comes in at an estimated 4.5 stitches and 6.5 rows per inch - though I would block the swatch first before I cast on. The cable takes a smidge more than 7 stitches per inch. Not that it would matter much if I'm only putting in a few of them.   

So. Here I am. Still undecided. My PracticalBrain says "Oh go with the cable, silly" My FancyNancy Brain says "All over stitch pattern!" 

PB says "You'll get tired of having to concentrate and won't finish it"

FNB says "You'll always yearn for the pretty one"

PB says "You'll look like a mack truck walking down the streetn"

FNB says "You will look Celtic! and it matches your new skirt."

Ah well. There it is. My tweed yarn did NOT come in. It has 2 more days to make me happy but again - if it doesn't come in by Saturday I can always bring down the winter clothes on my Monday Holiday. 

Decisions decisions. 

TheQueen and her Cashmerino

Yes. TheQueen is having a difficult time with her Cashmerino yarn. Mind now - she adores touching it, knitting it, looking at it, even smelling it. But she's not exactly sure what to do with it. It's actually Cashmerino Aran - so it's a thick yarn. Not a really bulky yarn, just thick. And though I thought I wanted to knit it into an Aran sweater I can't seem to settle on the cables I want. I believe that I don't actually 'see' it with my inner design eye.

That oatmeal colored yarn that I want but haven't bought yet ... I know exactly what I want it to look like. It's actually already knit in my IDEye. Of course - that's why I want to go shopping so badly. LOL. This yarn? Not yet. I know I have to give it permission to be something else - because right now, I'm stuck. 

So, what do I know? Hmmm. I know I want a cuddlesome garment. This yarn is just too cushy and plush to create anything else. I also don't want too much bulk around the shoulders. I'm undecided between cardigan and pullover. A Central Park Hoodie type of garment might be the thing, although I don't wear hoodies. Nobody says I have to put the hood in.  It really does look pretty in cables. But I think  - yes - they need to be narrow cables. (hmmm. am I getting someplace here) I know I want seed stitch in there someplace. And I'm suddenly thinking about a diamond cable button band instead of ribbing. 

 And here we begin to see where the problems crop up. Just imagine a thick diamond cable - maybe the Hollow Oak Cable - sitting on top of another as it heaves itself up over a mountainous bosom. Yeah. not a pretty thought.  But who says the part with the button on it can't be done in something flatter? Even a tight stockinette? 

I confess I am a Fancy Nancy when it comes to design. My inclination is to make it fancier. To pile it on till disaster befalls me.  (If you have a little girl, or even just access to someone else's little princess - you really will enjoy this series) I don't particularly look good in fancy. I just like it. In fact - it was partly because my Irene sweater was so plain - mostly stockinette in the round - that I had such pleasure in it. And that's really what I'm missing now - a project that's a pleasure to make. Something that is Not Socks. I have socks going all the time - they are fun - but I get tired of tiny needles. Socks are water. Sweaters are food. I need both for knitting equilibrium.  

Well. I will give that lovely yarn today and maybe tomorrow to decide on what to make it into and then I will just look around in my stash - and perhaps go shopping - and make something else. My motto? Knit no yarn before its time. 

UnAttic-ing Treasures

I really wanted to say unearthing, but I found this treasure in my attic. Because yes. There is Attic Stash too - in TheCastle. I am a knitter. What do you think is in my house?

Quite some years ago I saw the most beautiful red cabled sweater at some shopping mall store and thought "Hmm. I could knit that". Then I fell in love with this book and decided I wanted to knit the cover sweater. So for my birthday that year I purchased lots of balls of beautiful red Cashmerino Aran by Debbie Bliss from a very nice shop in Canada, the name of which I can now not remember.

And I cast on.

And I knit a good bit of it too before I realized I HATED that narrow cable on either side of the center panel. In fact, while I really love the look of cabled sweaters, I was not sure I had the discipline to actually knit a whole sweater's worth of them. So I set the sweater down. I cast on something new. I got tired of stumbling over that big bag of yarn. I packed it in a bin. I grew weary of having to move that bin to get to the stuff in the bin below. I banished the bin to the attic where I couldn't hear the yarn weeping. And there guilt was born. I know that we do get moths up in the attic. I know there's a chance that $$$ yarn was being eaten by hideous creatures who would live and reproduce and die in a wooly paradise.

Long stretches of time would go by when I could forget about that yarn but I always knew it was there and when I did think of it - it was with dread. I'd remember that yarn most frequently whenever I was considering making another big yarn purchase -  not when I was in a shopping frenzy at some fiber festival, mind, but whenever I was at home thinking "What do I want to make next?" - when I had to carefully consider, calculate and then lay out the cash. And since, lately I have been thinking about spending $$ AND knitting an Aran sweater, it should come as no surprise that the lovely red yarn, abandoned, but not forgotten, should at last take a stand.

And so I climbed the attic, flashlight in hand, and lo - in the very first storage bin I found Treasure. Lots of beautiful red cashmere blend yarn in a color I bet has been discontinued. After all, I bought this stuff 7 years ago!!! I inspected it carefully and then frogged it back to the ribbing. Not a single bite of moth damage in any of the  yarn - which leaves me feeling confident the rest of it, double packed in plastic, is in good shape.

So here I am - with a mountain of gorgeous yarn and a yearning to cast on something new (besides obligatory Christmas Socks - they don't count. I have to knit them). I won't try to make the cover sweater on that book. This is TheQueen. She always has to make up her own project. But I may use that pretty central cable. Or I may pull out my Barbara Walkers and pick something else.

Of course - there is now that big empty spot in the attic bin. I am sure the rest of the skeins inside are lonely and feel in need of some comfort shopping stash bin filling New Yarn. It's the end of September. Once I pay off Visa - I believe some oatmeal colored Cleckheaton tweed might come to live in that bin. Maybe. Perhaps. I'll think about it tomorrow. At Tara.