Mystery Yarn
I thought I had mentioned previously what yarn I’m using for Clapotis, but I guess I forgot. It’s Noro Silk Garden in colourway 82. Its original intended purpose was to be the top half of a sweater, the bottom half being a charcoal shade of Galway. I couldn’t make the Noro and the Galway the same gauge no matter how hard I tried, so I gave up and now all 10 skeins are going into my Clappy.
The Galway is going to become part of a pair of Felted Clogs, as soon as I find appropriate needles.
Today I felt like spending some money. We had originally planned to drive down to London this week so I could go here and browse through this heavenly stuff, but instead we bought this because we are children. I still needed a fix to my stash so I ended up buying a sweater’s worth of Classic Merino in the Aran shade. I don’t know what it’s going to be exactly, but definitely something with cables. I’m liking the cabling lately.
Renege
I was reading over my blog today and I had to reorganize some of my projects into a new category. Let’s be honest, shall we? I’m probably never going to finish them because by now I hate their fucking guts, so why look at them under the “projects” heading to the right? It just makes me feel bad. So I tucked them away innocuously under the much more humane “Unfinished” category.
I also want to take back some of the things I’ve written. For example, in the entry entitled, I Love This Sweater, let me clear something up for you. I HATE this sweater. Also, in the entry entitled, Madeira, I clearly convey that I really like the pooling of the varigated yarn. So, SO not true. HATE it. Finally, the entry, White Buffalo Unspun or Holy Shit is This Ever Bulky, I say (and I’m quoting, here), “It’s a much nicer pink in person, I think.” Bullshit. It’s an ugly, barfy, Pepto Bismally pink that makes me sick to look at and I HATE IT HATE IT HATE IT.
Just wanted to get that off my chest.
Clapotis
I’m a couple of inches into the straight knitting section of my Clapotis, and I thought I’d drop stitches at this point just to see how it was going to turn out. I love it! It’s so flowy and pretty and I can’t wait until it’s done. I’m hoping to use it around my shoulders this summer at the drive-in if it’s chilly at night.
I really didn’t understand what all the fuss was about with Clapotis, but now I do. It’s just so…fluffy!
It’s sunny today so I managed to take a nicely-lit shot near my window, and (at least on my monitor) the colours are spot on.
Finally, Update
First we’ll discuss Mariah. As you can see, I decided to stick with the Elann Highland stuff to finish Mariah. The Pingouin yarn I got to replace it is just too heavy and I can’t make gauge. I have the back, one sleeve and the right front completed. I really don’t want to knit this anymore and I’m dreading the time when I join up for the yoke and I have a billion stitches on the needle.
I really hate this yarn. I wish I didn’t because it’s so cheap and it comes in all these great colours, but I’ve come to hate working with it. I love the Mariah design so much and I can’t wait to wear it, but when I pick it up I’m discouraged because I just can’t keep an even tension. The yarn is fluffy and when you knit slightly tightly the strand pulls and it goes thin. When you loosen up just a tad, the stitches look too puffy. It looks awful. I hope blocking will improve the fabric, but for now when I look at my work I cringe. The sleeve and the cabled ribbing looks great; it’s just the stocking stitch that looks like shit.
Here we have part of a cardigan knit in another yarn from Elann, but this yarn I adore. It’s also Peruvian wool, but it’s unspun and it knits up around 16sts/4″. It’s fuzzy and soft. The pattern is basically Firth from Rowan’s A Season’s Tale, but I changed the ribbing and I think I’m going to do a hood instead of a collar. So far I’ve knit the back, one sleeve and the left front.
Ah, yes…the Ribby Cardi! The back and half of the left front…excuse the horrendous photo. (All the pictures were taken indoors at night in a dark basement with a hideously bright flash and then photoshopped so as not to hurt the eyes.) Since we all know how much I love that Elann Peruvian Highland, the finish date for this one has been changed to maybe never. Besides that, the pattern seems really small and I think I’ll be better off designing my own to size. If I finish this, I’ll give it to my sister.
I seem to like to knit 3/4 of each cardigan before I go on to the next. I keep thinking that if I just knit one at a time, I’d have 2 completed sweaters by now.
No Longer Commentless
Apparently my server is getting so bombed by MoveableType spam attacks that comments are no longer permitted. I changed my filenames and all is well. Comment away!
Progress, Honest!
I haven’t posted anything in a couple of weeks, and mostly that’s because we’re helping some family members through an ordeal, and I haven’t really been in the mood. But I have been knitting!
I’ve made progress on a couple of projects, including having fallen victim to the Clapotis disease.
I’ve been out of batteries for my camera, but that’s been remedied and either tomorrow or the next day I’ll be posting some pictures of what I’ve been working on.
Mariah…Goodbye-ah!
After doing some research and learning that the Peruvian Highland Wool can pill after first wearing I have decided to frog (!) the sleeve and use the yarn doubled up to make a warm lofty sweater for my son. I don’t want to go to all the trouble of knitting up these cables just for the sweater to get all pilly and bleh.
I just came back from the yarn shop and got some Pingouin Le Yarn 3 in navy instead. I’m starting over again. New sleeve pictures as soon as it’s knit up.
