I’ve been writing like a mutha for the past couple of weeks, so no blog time at all. But I have managed to fit in a bit of knitting. In fact, I’m feeling extremely virtuous all round. As well as meeting a publication deadline a month earlier than was necessary (ahem) I also finished off something that has been on my needles since (gulp) 2005. That’s right folks, theres been a two year hiatus since I cast on this:
Kate Watson’s ‘fairly easy fairisle’ cardigan. I think the only reason the 2005 version of me stopped knitting was because she got fed up with the acres of stockinette it takes to make the body. That said, its a very speedy knit, so perhaps she was easily bored back then.
The present day me poohpoohed the earlier me’s colourwork choices and stuck in some extra rows of ‘lotus pink’. I also knitted the cardigan a few inches longer than suggested, and inserted a couple of short rows to raise the back of the neck. It is quite a snug fit
….which is unnusual for this kind of cardigan, but I like it that way. It reminds me of a big, pink licquorice allsort.
Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Bulky (5 x onyx, 1 x lotus pink, 1 x rasberry, 1 x victorian pink)
Needles: 6.5 mm
Pattern: Kate Watson, “fairly easy fairisle”
I found the pattern a little basic and uninspiring, but then I now spurn the kindly wisdom of the pattern makers, for I have grown big headed and and far too full of knitting hubris since I started making things to my own specifications. So I fed my unfounded self-importance some more by making this:
A mitten inspired by some fairisle gloves I saw a couple of weeks ago in town. They were in a shop on the Royal Mile that will remain nameless. This is not a shop of yer usual bonnie Scotland tweedy tourist fayre, but an establishment that stocks extremely expensive knitwear and other garments of a type to make your mouth water. In fact, I have become so notorious for doing just that that the shop owner is aware of who I am. Considering that I never have several hundred pounds to spare on any of her small objects of desire her tolerance is quite gratifying. I saw a sweater in there a couple of years ago that still haunts me vividly. Ah me.
Anyway, while it bears little relation to the glove that inspired it, this is a pleasing, well-fitting left hand mitten knit to my own design on one circular 2.5 mm needle. Its right counterpart is currently in production. Having made just the one, and experiencing the satisfaction of figuring out the mitten anatomy, I am now filled with the urge to turn them out by the hundreds. Truly, I am (s)mitten. I don’t have the same feeling about socks, but I imagine its a similar phenomenon.
however, next time I’m designing my own colour patterns, will someone remind me please not to put three in one row?
KDD & Co 
I so understand the haunting affect of sweaters and images of ensembles of them, especially in knitting shops. I ponder the thought of this Royal Mile in which you get to stroll ! Edinburgh is a beautiful place I am sure of it. Your adorable words ” I fed my unfounded self-importance ” about your process of wanting to knit and design perhaps, really is cute. I had assumed you’d been designing, knitting, sewing, all of those things since a very early age, but I’m wondering if you too, like me, have only recently gotten swept into the tidal wave of knitted expression, of Ravelry, of and in itself…a newly delved dream? I love your designs, you are growing immensely as I breath, your creative energy as limitless as the sky. In fact, I am sure you have no obligation in your days other than knitting, by the measure of what you produce ! What.. a day job? Surely not ! ;-) ~Jen from MtVeeder CA
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