Bright and early on a Monday morning

One of the non knitting things which has taken bits and pieces of my time this winter has been the final finishing of Mr. Needles study. It was done but for wall papering the massive panels on the end wall, the closet, and all the trim. As ever, Mr. Needles is in charge of construction and I am in charge of painting, staining, and wallpapering. Voila. Finis.

If you want the look of cherry 'woodwork' to match cherry look furniture, it can be done with a little plastic, some basic white moulding, a couple of panels of cherry look shelving material and a couple little cans of dark walnut and burgundy coloured stains. All that is left is the cleaning and tidying. That will happen when the cleaning of the corners happens, an ongoing issue here at the House of Needles.

Those days last week really felt like a holiday even though they were not. I accomplished a lot and got some corners tidied and on occasion, I sat and knit. And Sunday, I knit a lot. I worked on several pairs of socks, that interesting drop stitch scarf and something completely new.

Friday at knitting, I cast on for a sweater. I planned to begin with my lovely red Cloud Cotton, but because the basic sweater is from a book I have not knit from before, I dug in the stash to get out the blue Cloud Cotton from a long time ago. This nice yarn never quite developed into what I was working on. It was just sitting on a shelf, wound and ready to go.

The book is Sally Melville's Purl, and the sweater is called Another Coco Jacket. The design and yarn are well balanced, and the only changes I am making is a wee bit of upsizing to fit. It is this mild stitch or two upsizing that makes me very conservative with my precious Red Cloud Cotton.

I am really pleased with the fabric. If Cloud Cotton has a flaw, it is it's very very matte nature. There is no play of light within it, there are no secrets hiding among its strands. Its there, straight up, hiding nothing, a simple yarn. The stitch pattern, with its offsetting blocks of patterns, stockinette, garter, and reverse stockinette, give the blue yarn depth and interest, making a most pleasing fabric. (Gratuitous second shot - it's that nice.)
The other thing the blue yarn is doing for me, is showing me exactly how much yarn a sweater with sleeves is going to use. In my ever paranoid state of mind, I am sure I am going to run out of yarn, even when I have dozens of skeins on hand. I have 12 skeins, 150 metres a skein, of the blue. I know, I know. It will make a whole sweater but deep inside, there is always that doubt. What if.

When I work on the red yarn, I want to know exactly how much mileage I'm going to get.

Its working up fast, but I don't want to jinx myself. It will be done when it is done.