My Precious

Some days I just amaze myself.  All the things I did not think about when I began this project... 

I was sitting knitting yesterday, making all sorts of headway down the little white sweater, looking forward to seeing the colour work, when it occurred to me, this project is not done in the round.

There are no seams to be sure, but it isn't in the round.  To top that, the yarns are not wool.  The yarns are bamboo and nylon.  Oh dear. Stranded colourwork back and forth in yarn that is not wool.  If that doesn't sound like a recipe for disaster, I don't know what does.  

On the plus side, my hands are very very familiar with yarns without the stretch and bounce of wool.  That comes from a youth spent crocheting doilies.  Plus number two, I have worked colourwork with bamboo yarn before.  That was much more challenging because the two yarns were very different.  Even so, the mittens turned out rather nicely, if I do say so myself.  

I did think about working in the round for the colourwork rows, but it would mean some pretty heavy sewing in of the ends on what is a very lightweight sweater with a supremely tidy edging.  I didn't think the added bulk would be easy to hide so I just bit the bullet, and accepted the back and forth of it.  

That is where I found myself this morning, with only one row of the flower buds left to knit.  I am very very pleased.  I have managed against all odd to keep the tension just about right, maybe the teensiest bit loose, if anything, but there isn't any puckering and all the stitches lay ever so nicely.  The knit side is always easy, but I was very concerned about doing so on the purl side.  I can knit with my right hand (western style) but not purl.  I wasn't sure I would be able to manage the yarns both in my right hand.  I feared they would twist and my colour dominance would be right out the window.

In the end, I went slowly and worked lightly.  I dropped the yarn I wasn't working with and picked it up again when I needed to for the purl rows.  All I had to remember was the coloured yarn had to come from under the white.  Not tricky, hardly fiddly, just slow and careful work.  It was like handling Sweet Thing when she was first born.  I did everything so so very carefully with her.  It was fine. I was even able to go at a reasonable speed.

As I was working that last flower bud row, I was thinking about the leaf bits.  My inspiration sweater didn't have leaf bits (I don't think) , but this little pattern does, and the leaf bits are on lines that are completely separate from the buds.  I thought about multi coloured sock yarns, but the green toned yarn I have would look so coarse and dark up against these lovely soft tones. I knew I had a nice green baby wool in the stash somewhere, but I didn't think adding a pure wool would do me any favours.  I sat back, just the tiniest bit peeved.  And then I noticed a box of yarns that I pulled out while doing the stash dive.  

I have some pretty clear blue Baby Bamboo and a coordinating blue and green Snuggly Smiley Stripes from Sirdar ( the colour is called Giggly Green).  It is a DK weight yarn, just a bit heavier than my sock weight, but I wondered if I could swing it for such a few rows.  A short quick debate, said yup, you can do green leaves with a bit of blue and the weight wasn't an issue. I would just have to knit a little more firmly with it and it would be fine.  I went to grab the box and it was as if I was a prospector hitting the mother lode.

For there, all alone and completely forgotten was a ball of Baby Bamboo in the perfect spring like solid green. I had forgotten about that lone green.

  

There.  See?  Isn't that just the perfect compliment to the soft rosy peachy colours in the flower buds?  I have just one more row to go of the green and the colourwork is done.  After all is said and done, I might do a french knot as a center for each flower, probably in the green.  I'll do a little bit of a test to see how that looks before I decide, but that will wait till the very last.

Once I knit a couple rows of the white, I'll really be able to see if it all worked as I hoped.  And then just a wee bit more white to the hem,  some sleeve knitting and done.

Dainty.  Pretty.  Girly.  Just right for my wee Sweet Thing. My Sweet Thing.  Her Mom and Dad's Precious.