There's movement on the knitting front! I have overcome vast inertia (and a sudden retreat into manic reading instead of knitting) in order to (a) reduce to neat balls of wool the swiss cheese scarf by determined frogging while watching X-Files, and (b) play with banana fibre.
The banana fibre was hauled out as a direct result of Cape Town's current tendency to random load shedding, i.e. the lights go out without warning, usually right in the middle of an X-Files episode. This happened at about 8pm on Monday night, leaving me sitting in the dark kicking myself for not having dragged out the banana fibre and printed out a pattern a lot earlier, since knitting is a perfect activity for low light. I tried to read by candlelight for a bit, but the incipient headache made me give up and go to bed ridiculously early, with a pillow over my head to cut out the INCREDIBLE NOISE from the hospital generators across the road.
In a spirit of preparedness, and mental fist-shaking at the Electrical Powers That Be, I found the wool and pattern yesterday. I ended up going with the nicely simple broken rib Robynn suggested for My First Project, and it really seems to suit this yarn, which is heavy and slubby and uneven, and makes for a gorgeous texturedness. (The plain/purl alteration does, however, still cause me to occasionally bring forth extra ninja stitches from their pocket dimension when I'm not looking). The needles are huge, size 8, and wooden, since apparently my personal and wayward knitting gods have decreed that metal needles are for me an illegitimate rite which cause me to fall into sin, mostly cursing and dropped stitches. It's also a very thin scarf - I only cast on 24 stitches, and the width seems to be perfect. The problem with the Swiss Cheese was not the pattern, which I love, but the wool (half acrylic, can't stand acrylic) and the width, way too wide. I think I'll try for a skinny swiss cheese in the rather nice grey laceweight mohair friends madly acquired for me at a neighbourhood market.
I was, of course, poised in front of X-Files at 7.50pm last night with my knitting in hand and a torch next to the sofa, and, of course, there wasn't a power cut. On the other hand, I've achieved a good 10cm worth of scarf. Also, Mulder is stuck in Tunguska about to be infected horribly with Black Oil.
More importantly, tonight I have dinner with my sister, who's been away for a couple of weeks, and finally score the kid mohair courtesy of my papa. Photos will undoubtedly follow. *gloats*
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2 comments:
Oh ho, I have yarn envy! All these things in life we think will never happen to us :-). OTOH I am currently working with a very pleasing bamboo/wool blend from the nice folks at Orion. Nice, but expensive, hence adding "needs less yarn" to "works up quickly" as advantages of doing stuff for babies.
I find that knitting by candle-light gives me a headache. I can't see very well in candle-light. Possibly it's because I'm using navy blue wool. I prefer to read by candle-light.
MamaG: I bought some of that Bambi (70% organic cotton/30% bamboo). I needed about 30 balls, so it was quite pricey. I can't wait to finish this damn Aran cardigan so I can start on it. After that, I'm going to get some of the 100% bamboo. It's only in 4ply, though, so it will have to be something summer-weight. Maybe something lacey. I love bamboo.
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