Pretty Blues

I'm lucky.  Really lucky.  I am posting from what may be my new computer.  The landlord was down in his office after answering my interminable list of questions about what my new computer should be, when he looked around and spied his duffel bag on the floor and he realized there was a laptop in it that he hasn't used since at least June.  He pulled it out and came charging upstairs with a deal for me!  I will try this one and if  I like it he will make me a deal. This laptop is larger than I wanted but it is probably the size I would have ended up with.  This relieves my mind some what.

I did knit on my very pretty Myrtle sweater on Saturday but on Sunday, I treated myself to a new adventure.   I pulled a really pretty yarn out of my stash.  It is a lovely blue yarn, but it isn't the one I thought I was going in for.  I started to dig in the stash for my Briggs and Little Regal in Quoddy Blue and came out with this lovely Royal Tweed from Lana Grossa

The goal is to make a Willard in this pretty soft tweedy blue.  That leaves the Quoddy Blue Regal for another sweater like that beguiling  Rusty Tuku (even if it isn't the same gauge, the idea beguiles me!).

I saw the Willard sweater a few weeks ago and with its long tall collar and my need to keep the chill off the back of my neck, it seems like the perfect knitting for a winter that is just setting in.  Willard was also a great pick for Sunday morning knitting because today was another F1 race, this time at COTA in Austin.

The first thing I did was start the pattern by making a change.  As usual.  There is no reason why I shouldn't be knitting this in the round right from the start.  Fitting the neckline is easy enough with short rows and by starting with the collar, the collar itself can be my substantial swatch.

I cast on first thing in the morning and knit till race coverage started at 10:30.  I just kept knitting.  And knitting.  I did measure and I even checked my gauge a couple times, and by the time Valtieri Bottas won the race, and by the time Lewis Hamilton won his sixth drivers championship,

I had the collar completed.  Well two rows from complete, which is good enough for me.  Knitting while watching something so compelling to watch can be a challenge.  It is easy to start knitting fast and so tightly that you almost cannot move the stitches on the needles.  My hands can reveal how I feel far too easily. Not that I had to rip back at all.  Not this time at least.

I did have to put it down though by the end of the race.  I had been knitting from early morning and with the added tenseness in them from watching really exciting racing, my hands were crying 'uncle.'

When I was digging for yarn, I didn't just dig out one kind of yarn.  I pulled out the whole container of yarn.  The container also held this delicious thing.

I have an idea for this very nice bulky yarn.  It might be a little risky.  I am not sure if the weight is going to look right in a lace pattern, but I think it is worth the time finding out.

The green coat will be knit on this week.  The Myrtle will be knit on this week.  But there is some fun and new yarn to play with too.