Sunday 17 June 2012

Knitting, and Reading About Knitting, For Me

I enjoy knitting for other people, although tend to choose only those who appreciate the effort that goes into handmade work - which means my family and a few close friends usually. But I have set aside Sundays to knit for myself at the moment, and this is my current WIP for cool, rainy Sundays at the moment:
This is the Apple Strudel cardigan from Yarn Forward, December 2008 - an aran weight, top down, cabled cardigan which I am knitting in budget-friendly Windermere wool-blend aran (800g for £12). Sure, not the best quality yarn in the world, but a lovely tweedy grey and soft to the touch. If I work hard, I will finish it in time for our summer trip to Scotland in August, where I know from past experience I will need it!  I do have two other projects OTK - if it ever gets warm again in the UK, I can switch back to the American project, which uses the immensely beautiful (and beautifully named) Hempathy yarn.  Also, I am having, as they say in German, a kleine Pause with Spring Cloud as I am sure it is a little too small and I am debating with myself about whether it will block bigger or whether I should just reknit the body...boring.

My exciting news this week was the arrival in the post of a book I have been lusting after for some time - Coastal Knits, a self published book of 10 patterns by Alana Dakos and Hannah Fettig. I want to knit everything in this lovely book, which is superbly presented (although if you already have New England Knits, by MacDonald and LaBarre, as I do, it does tend to continue this theme, as many of the designs echo each other. This is not a criticism, as both are happily living on my bookshelf - but if you are budgetting you probably could get away with one or the other of these two lovely books). However, for me, yet another to put on my bookshelf for browsing through when I don't feel like knitting, or have nothing to knit (rare!), and also for pattern design and layout inspiration!  Highly recommended.

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