The In Betweens

What with all the ruminating on things that were, minutes between sections of huge but rewarding jobs, and grandkids, all the knitting going on here has been about time in between other things. It is sort of rewarding to sit down and really take a look at everything going on.

Each day, I try to knit at least 2 rounds of what was once a completed top, my Not Daisies Top . It looks exactly the same today as it did before I called it done.  I am utterly thrilled to say that it is now as long as it was before I ripped back the garter stitch hem and I am beginning actual new length to it.  So it goes.  I ought to work more devotedly on this one just to get it done but sometimes it isn't the right yarn to work with and sometimes, such as when I am sitting in my knitting chair, which is just a smidgen too high to use one of my WIP bins to support the rest of the top.   My knitting chair is a superior F1 vantage point so that means it isn't a good top for F1 races and there are a fair number of hours every second week spent watching F1. Other knitting happens.

I am two rows away from the start of the second lace section on my stunning yellow top,

the sweet Cascadas Tee by Susana IC in Patons Hempster.  The more I knit with this yarn, the more I like it.  I washed my swatch from back when I was thinking of using it for a Shakerag Top, several more times, to see how it would perform in day to day life, and it does indeed just get better.  I  purchased two more skeins when I was hoping to make the Skakerag Top, and almost had a yarn incident purchasing several more colours. I am really pleased with the way the lace is turning out with it, crisp and clean.  Or it will be when it is washed and blocked.

And then the second of my tops made using the Summer Snowflakes pattern from Susan Dingle.

This top had the most change over the last ten days.  It made for great knitting during races and between kids and chores and errands because the increases are easy to see and place and there are the same number of plain rows between each set of increases.  I have to do a gauge check to see if I need to do the last two sets of increases, but it is really nice knowing exactly how the pattern fits before I can try this version on.  

And then there is this, my new Icelandic shawl, the Dýrfinnustaðahyrna með blúndu.

It is really too lovely to be an in between project but the little edging really was a great in between.  I have picked up stitches but the next bit is going to take a few days of devoted work and a lot of counting till the lace pattern is established.  Once that is set up, it will be wonderful knitting again.  The lace is not hard (I hope) and the colour changes look intuitive.  

If you look carefully just at the tip of the needle, you will see what seems to be untethered lace edging and indeed, it is.  By the time I got to the right number of picked up stitches, I had exactly one repeat of the edging too much.  I will go back and shorten it after I have knit the rest of the shawl.  The construction of this shawl and the edging pattern allow me to do that.   

And that is the betweens, reported to you, in between.  Gotta go.