Autumn Whine

I just finished my March socks and I'm part way through my April socks. It's all very dull. I completely blew off the "knit a pair of socks per month" thing that I was enthusiastic about earlier in the year. After these are finished, I will still knit socks, ordinary, occasional, and only because I like to wear them.

My red Vitamin D cardigan is almost finished too. I've started on the last 24 rows. Each row has 330 stitches of stocking stitch. Yawn. After that, there will be a lot of i-cord. I believe that it fits and am crossing my fingers that it will suit me and that I won't have to give it away. It's knit from the top down so I've been able to try it on. I am not, however, been able to tell whether the fronts will drape attractively. 

I'm not good at sweaters. Sometimes I select a pattern or a colour that doesn't suit me. Sometimes I make the wrong size, or I think that I can knit without a pattern. I have given away a cardigan and seen it unravelled and returned to me in the form of balls of wool. I said "oh no you must keep the wool," and saw again it later, knit into yet another cardigan. I think that my daughter has it now. I have had an enormous sweater mailed back to me after 4 years of lying in a drawer unworn. I did my first steek on it and made it into a coat. When asked, I claim that it has dolman sleeves. Another cardigan I made was only ever worn under a coat as a layer of insulation. Those are the ones that I know about. Poor things.

Of course, I have had a few successes. I have a black wool sweater that I knit for myself with yarn that I bought from the back of a truck in the market in Sienna, Italy. I knit the same pattern with Icelandic yarn for my sister and a third, pullover version for myself. We wear those and get compliments. I think I will knit it again. I have some lovely grey yarn from Longmeadow Farm in Freedom, New York. 



So, what have I been doing for fun? I've been playing with three skeins of lace weight that I bought from Jill Draper at Hemlock. The swatch below is made with 4 patterns from Heirloom Knitting. I knit the dark green edging and insertion first and then picked up with the pale green and gold. After blocking and admiring, I pulled back to the dark green and have kept going with that. I'll make that as long as I can with the one skein. After that, I envisage picking up all along the edge with the pale green and knitting the diamonds in a kind of reverse Faroese way until I run out of that and I'll switch to gold leaf lace. This could take some time. 











Comments

Marjorie said…
I've made a half-hearted effort at a pair of socks a month, after discovering I had all the colors needed for the monthly KALs. I would like to have those socks, but other projects compete more successfully for my time.

We seem to be opposites--I find sweater knitting easy, but shawl knitting a challenge. I have no qualms about leaping into a self-designed sweater, but the thought of doing the same thing with a shawl seems beyond my abilities. I think the Vitamin D cardigan is really pretty, and I bet it will be very attractive.
Mary Lou said…
We could start a wall of shame - I have a few candidates myself. Or they are the ones that fit initially and then drooped sadly. Vitamin D at least is supposed to droop, well drape. Looks very wearable.
Helen said…
What is the sweater pattern that you've made repeatedly? I've sort of given up on garments because narrow shoulders and an embonpoint present a considerable fitting challenge, but I still get tempted. At the moment I want to do a big sweater to wear with skinny trousers, but I have fatty legs...
Anonymous said…
I have been wearing a pair of your socks every day since it has gotten cold as well as the beautiful capelet you made for me. Unfortunately my dickie has been eaten by moths, last winter I wore it often and received many compliments. Currently I am wearing a hat knit by your sister but the lovely hats from you will soon be in rotation.
Who needs sweaters.

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