And the knitting

Lest anyone thinks whining is the only thing going on at Chez Needles this morning, I thought I should update my knitting.  I had hoped to do so much more but my hands were just not cooperating and it was not to be.

I had really hoped to be at least half done the second sleeve on this sweater.  On a long weekend, that ought to be easily done.  A half a sleeve is not so much knitting.  My hand was acting up one day, but not the usual way, the next day my arm, and the next my shoulder.  I suspect shenanigans, and that one night I slept goofy.  Or weather.  It is changeable.  The combination of aches made it harder to knit on the sweater simply because of the weight of a whole sweater.  It sits on a stool but you still drag it a bit as you knit around. 

Still, the sleeve is well begun and decreases are established.  It is all downhill from here.

I did a little knitting onmy Shetland Hap (Hap is shawl on Shetland)  I am using the ever lovely Hansel by Gudrun Johnson.  I have wanted this forever.

I've beeen switching needles a bit here and there and it has become apparent to me that I need some bamboo or other needles more and more often these days.  With finer yarns, it makes the ever more present familial shakes easier speedier and easier to knit through.  This is a sticky sort of yarn (Jamieson's of Shetland Ultra) but my slick metals tips make it a bit of a challenge to get a smooth even garter stitch.  The debate begins.  Tips to add to what I already own or just get a whole wood tip kit?

When my hands are too shaky, I go to another cowl, which is, I am surpised to say, is a delight.

I have tried this yarn several times, different patterns and it just never felt right.  But this is perfect.  It begins as a Matchmaker Cowl from Martina Behm.  It may stay as a cowl, but as I found the first time I knit a Matchmaker, I love the shape of this first step.   It could be a great shawl if I just keep doing this!  This time, the pattern feels right for this blend of silk and wool.  And yes, it is on bamboo needles.

And then, as I talked about last week, I started another project I have thought about for a very long time.  I am limiting my Stash Dash to things I already started so if I want to work on this this summer...

It is based on Shalom which I have made several times before, and is, like Leisl, a pattern that can be easily adapted to what you you desire.  The yarn is Tupa from Mirasol, and heaven help me a lovely skein of hand dye that my sister swiped from her daughter's stash while traveling in the UK several years ago.  I started a Hitchhiker with it and it was fine, but I saw it beside the brilliant red Tupa once, and I just knew they needed to be together.  I actually saw them in a shalom, but the hand dye is a fingering weight and Tupa is a good solid almost beefy DK.  I played with stitch pattern off and on, and have finally settled on one that I think will work.  The fingering weight is going to be knit in a faggoting pattern, a yarn over, knit two together on both sides sort of thing.  There seems to be a sort of disparity in the strength of colours here, but once the handdye is surrounded by the brilliant red, well, it looked fantastic in the swatch. 

There Stash DAsh starts officially on the 22 if May and runs to August 22 this year.  There is no doubt that I will have planty to knit with what I already have on hand, but with me, even when it comes to my personal challenge to clear up some WIPs, is still about what I feel like knitting on. 

I love knitting something firece and I never ever want to feel I have to do it. I want to goof off with an odd sort of stash dash personal challenge to only knit things already in progress, I can.  If that means I give me some new knits when I already have a sea of WIPs, then I am ok with it too.