Sunday, January 10, 2010

The funny thing about this weather is its constancy – most un-British. I am used to walking across the square to get the newspapers after I finish blogging., and then reporting to my husband on the state of the weather. Now it’s No Change, day after day. We had a bit of a snow flurry yesterday and my hopes rose. Nope. Nothing.

The big plus that we’re nearly three weeks past the solstice already. When the crack does come, it will have spring in tow.

The ironing and the paperwork are showing definite signs of diminution, as I chip away at them. Not so the stash.

Here’s the Grandson Sweater. Despite its impressive circumference, we’re trotting on nicely. That’s a quarter of the distance from cast-on to neck-shaping already. I don’t think I’ve ever knit seeding before, certainly not on this scale. I like it. I like the effect, and I like the fact that it’s very nearly as quick as st st to do. I seem to have included the end-of-round jog for your delight. I don't think it'll be very obtrusive in the end.

Comments

Grannypurple, yes, you’re right about the deliciousness of buying books in a yarn fast. But calorie-free delicious foods? The closest I can come (in thought) is lobster.

Mary Lou and Julie, thanks for the steek-help. I like the idea of hand-sewing a steek. Anything to avoid unpacking the sewing machine. And Julie, I will certainly search your blog for tips. This is fun.

Catdownunder, I am delighted to have your recommendation for the Haapsalu Shawl book. It’s expensive, and a bit of a long shot. I already own “the near-legendary Estonian shawl book, Pitsilised Koekirjad” that Meg says she would like to reprint. (So where did I get it? if not from her.)

I doubt if I’ll ever use either of them, although one never knows. I've owned and enjoyed reading Susanne Pagoldh’s “Nordic Knitting” for a long time. I am very glad to be ptomoting it, by way of the Grandson Sweater, into the fairly small subset of Books I Have Actually Knit From.

4 comments:

  1. The weather here has been rather inconstant, but far less snow so far than in the past several winters. We got up to near 40F a couple days ago, but at the moment (6:30AM) it's 2F. My only worry is that we'll get subzero temperatures without adequate snow cover to insulate tender plants.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Donice (in Ohio)1:03 AM

    Jean, I've ordered the Haapsalu shawl book from Schoolhouse Press and am looking forward to spending time with it.
    I like the look of your seeding; it tempts me to knit a nice basic sweater with allover seeding and just a little something near the top. I've been torn between starting Beth Brown-Reinsel's Celtic Dreams sweater, and the Fylingdales cardigan from the book A Fine Fleece. I've finished any number of little unfinished knitted things while I agonize over the decision. And sometimes I think I should just design an Aran myself. Decisions...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh, the new Haapsalu shawl book is lovely - like a coffee table knitting book. And it'll have to do for now for those of us how can't find a copy of Pitilised Koekirjad!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Maureen in Fargo3:52 PM

    You'll like Donna Druchunas' Japanese Knitting class, I took it last year at the Minnesota Knitting Guild's Yarnover. Definitely helpful in figuring out how to decipher the symbols in the Japanese patterns. She's fun and interesting too. And I'm hoping to take Franklin's Photography class this year, if I get in! Do great minds think alike, or what? LOL

    I bought Haapsalu Saal when it first came out in the original Estonian. Now we'll see if I can resist buying it again in English so I can read the history parts. Logic tells me to wait until Knitting Camp and read it there...it's a beautiful book no mattter what language it's in!

    I have a couple of Arans from A Fine Fleece in my Ravelry queue, I really like the book. I designed a lot of my own Arans early on, now I want to knit other people's patterns. I suppose that's a bit backwards but that's me!

    Glad to hear your weather's moderating a bit, ours is too. The bitter cold that we had here (it was -33F in Fargo last week and that's not the wind chill) wasn't unusual for us, what was unusual was how far south it went into the rest of the country. It's supposed to be 37F on Wednesday, a heat wave!!

    ReplyDelete