The new Rowan 45 has been showing up online. I haven't gotten to look through a real copy, but the previews I've seen are certainly very nice. I put together these photo collages of all my favorites. Above left is Lotus, in Fine Milk Cotton, and Rue, in Fine Milk Cotton and Shimmer yarns.
Arnica, in Cotton Glace, and Hibiscus, in Fine Milk Cotton (I believe that's a 4-ply cotton).
Salvia, left, is knit in Cotton Glace, and Trillium in Fine Milk Cotton.
The last, Cassis, is done all in Kidsilk Haze.
Just wanted to share the prettiness! I'd be fortunate to get time and materials for one of these projects--but it's fun to window shop, isn't it?
I've decided to tackle a large gauge project next in the hopes that I can do some stash busting and crank out a new sweater quickly. Sometimes it works that way, sometimes it doesn't! The yarn I've had in my stash for ages. I adored this sweater when I first saw it and specially ordered the yarn in the colors shown on the model. It's very hard to photograph, but I can say that mine is not as dark as it looks in the picture above.
It's coming along nicely, but as with my other Colinette projects (this is my third), I worry about running out of yarn. First, I started with the ruffle on the bottom but one skein of Mercury was not enough for even that, so I decided to do the sleeves only and some type of edging like there is on the neck around the bottom. Since I am now missing the 2 inches of ruffle, I have to use more of the main yarn to make the body long enough. The smallest size uses 3 skeins of Tagliatelli, as does the medium, so I thought I would be okay to make the bottom a bit longer. We'll see!
I don't know what's up with the Colinette Mercury. My trusty little scale says it weighs 54 g, so it must be a misprint in the pattern. Or something I'm doing in the knitting, which seems odd as the sleeve ruffle was done on the recommended needle size and looks a-okay. Nothing to do but keep knitting and see how it goes!
Happy 2009, everyone! Well, I have to say, one of my new year's resolutions is to post more regularly on my blog. Along with that is the resolution to produce more to post about, so it won't be just fluff that I'm adding here. To start off the new year, here is a new finished object, Arianrhod by Elsebeth Lavold from her book The Dreamweaver Collection.
I like Elsebeth Lavold and this book has a lot of wearable designs in it, which seems to be what is lacking in my sweater collection. I get sidetracked by the eccentric and end up making a marvelous thing but perhaps don't wear it much. Wearable things may not be the most interesting to knit, but very often those are my favorites. The cotton cable yarn was a pleasure to work with, and at a gauge of 17 x 24 or some such thing, the sweater knits up very fast and the pattern couldn't be simpler. I ended up making the small size, but cast on stitches for the medium for the body of the sweater (it's knit from cuff to cuff). Turned out fine. Lavold advises weaving in your ends every couple of color changes, and that is the best way to do it.
As an indulgence, I bought myself a copy of the book A Stitch in Time, Vintage Knitting & Crochet Patterns 1920-1949 Vol. 1 by Jane Waller and Susan Crawford. It's a beautiful book and, at 350 pages, there's much to see. I examined each pattern and then started over at page one again. Haven't come close to declaring a favorite yet. The book can be purchased here.
I also got a certain amount of Rowan Kid Classic in this lovely color called Oats. What I'm making is something from Rowan 42, but it will be a surprise.
