And next up

As much as I could have written for hours on Monday, today, I have nothing.  It's been that sort of week, full of ups and downs.  

It has been that way in my knitting too.  I can't seem to get started in the morning and when I do get going, it's been pretty lackluster.  Still, there has been progress.

I am on to the body ribbing.  I am going with the white rather than the cream.  It just felt more right.  And if I use the white, it will be all used up when the garment is done.  That matters these days.  

Sometimes when I choose a project, the real purpose is to get the yarn out of my stash.  That was the case with this tee

And it is happening again with this yarn. 

It's a good yarn.  It is very easy care and I do like it.  However, I just really want it out of my stash.  It will make a great short sleeve tee.  I have only 7 skeins so it's a bit less than I usually like.  It will probably be a good idea to knit the sleeves and then go on to complete the body.  It won't be a complicated garment.  Just a nice basic top.  

Besides the white top, and all the dreaming I've been doing, I have done some more interesting stuff on ongoing projects.  More on that tomorrow.  For now it's time to get down to work and finish the white and cream to.

Updated:  I forgot one small find to add to repairs done.  It had slid down into a yarn box and I had completely forgot about it.  

My sweet little Kauni cowl had a problem at the cast off.  There was a pull out that had caused the end of the yarn to come loose. I needed to add a bit of yarn and reset it more firmly in place.  I spied the correct yarn for the repair in the yarn leftover bag and that reminded me to go sear hang for that and get the job done.  Guess what?  Job done!  Now all the repairs are truly complete.

Books and Good Things

I keep finding interesting stuff on my bookshelves.  That has always been the case with me and books.  Any books.  Books of letters between 18 th century people, collections of short stories, novels, histories, biographies and so on.  Plus anything to do with fibre arts. Books are maps to travel to different places and times.  

As I was wandering among my books, I came across this sweater.

It's a lovely textured crochet sweater.  I made it in the 90s long before I learned to knit.  I wore it as we traveled by ferry from Port Hardy to Prince Rupert.  I had several ladies compliment me on it.  It was one of the best things I ever made.  

I have often thought of recreating it in knitting.  A similar look could be made very easily even if you are not normally a winging it sort of knitter.  The Penta Pillar pullover by James N Watts could be used as the base and then you just need to add interesting stitches to your work.   

Personally, I would use the Lusk as a pattern base and when  I get to patterns, I am thinking of the crisp twisted stitches of the Styrian valley.

Or some of the gorgeous stitch patterns from this tour deforce stitch dictionary.

I mean really.  How lovely.

Now this pattern would be lovely in a summer tee shirt or a winter lacy pullover.  

So many beautiful things to think about and to knit.  There is nothing like knitting to excite all the little grey cells in my head.  Endless possibilities from simple string.

Interesting yarn and pattern combinations.

I feel like I have ten thousand things to talk about and if I am not careful, they will all spill out at once.  I will attempt to keep on track.

I'm not quite where I hoped to be on my cream and white sweater but I am in a good place.  I am almost at the point where I need to decide if the ribbing is going to be cream or white.  There is lots of both yarns.  This is where the top will become cream with white stripes or white with cream stripes.  It's a conundrum, but a fun one.

Friday I talked about looking at yarn in a different way.  A few years ago I did a stash dive and some yarns spoke to me. They actually screamed at MD but nicely.  I saw magic.  I started knitting them into a Starting Point shawl by Joji Locatelli.  I frogged it because I will never use a shawl like that no matter how beautiful it was.  And it was beautiful.  Magic happened when I saw the yarns together and that feeling has never left me.  

So rich and striking.  I have been searching for the right pattern to keep them together for a while now.  I have 5 colours to use and many patterns use more or less.  Five is awkward, but it is not negotiable.  And I am not interested in colourwork for these yarns.  I don't have any single one of them in quantity to play main yarn.   

I have also been looking at my bookshelves lately too. It's nice to do that when my hands are done for the day.  There are so many good things in my knitting library.  Stitch dictionaries of all sorts, pattern books, all kinds of things fibre and craft related,  that fire up my brain, sending my thoughts pinging hither and thither.  I came across a couple of old crochet garment books.  These are not the granny stitch crochet garments that are sweeping the Fibre arts world at the moment.  They go a step farther to make really lovely sweaters in crochet, a far step beyond a double crochet.  

One of them is this one.

Do you see it?  

I have always loved this vest.  I think it will work for my gorgeous pile of yarn. 

It's a shape that is simple and could easily be converted to knitting.  I could just crochet it too but the things I need to do to make it fit me nicely might be easier for me to do in knitting.  YMMV of course but I think my brain is more flexible in knitting. 

The pattern asks for 6 colours but I think 5 will work because of the changes I need.  I am going to colour up a colour placement chart like the book shows for the original design with the changes I need in place.  I will also think about sleeves because I would really like to use up the yarn.  

Anyway that is what I was dreaming of this weekend.  It was fun.  Exhilarating even.  Today I am going to work to getting the Lusk cream and white tee done.

Which reminds me.  Rebecca Clow just put out the perfect new little summer sweater/ vest/ tee for summer.  Check out her Sollas pattern.