Sunday, February 05, 2017

Scotland’s win yesterday means that at least I can go on thinking about this year’s Calcutta Cup sweater, although the need for it remains pretty remote. (The match will be at Twickenham, where we never win.) (Still, we only very rarely win our first match of the tournament, as we did yesterday – so one never knows.)

Rachel wasn’t able to watch the match live. She recorded it, and went to great lengths not to know the result before she watched it. And she succeeded, although, leaving Mass this morning, she overheard an aged Irishman asking his friend whether he had watched the rugby, and deduced from the tone of voice that the news might be good, from her point of view. Alexander, who was of course there on the spot, says it was a bit too exciting for him.

I incline, Calcutta-Cup-sweater-wise, towards Kate Davies’ Macrihanish. Tom was wearing it at the EYF last year and it looked rather well. There are other options, including one of Meg’s. Or I could design one myself. It’s nice to think about, and I will go on doing so as long as I can. And if we should win this year, per impossibile, I will make very strenuous efforts to see the cup. I never have.

Today was calmer, and I am a bit more than halfway through the fifth repeat of the centre of Mrs Hunter’s shawl. The line where the centre I am knitting joins the borders which I have already knit, looks really good, far better than a sewn seam could look. I really must get that picture taken. I’m glad I put in the break row, too. I am becoming obsessively anxious about the k2togs at the end of each row, where the join is made. They’re very slightly tricky, because there is a marker to be moved out of the way. And if I drop one, I don’t just have a dropped stitch – the whole join could un-zip.

I have also gone on thinking about EYF-2017 purchases. I am grateful for your comments about the Nila pattern, and I think I have abandoned the idea. If the weather was chilly enough to make the neck and cross-over comfortable, you would want the chest fully covered. I went on through Veronik Avery’s patterns and have flagged (if that’s the word) “Waterhouse”. One of the Ravellers who has done it, added a couple of inches. It’s better that way.

Once having conceived the idea of knitting a Baby Surprise with little skeins of graduated yarn, I got on today to Madeleinetosh “Unicorn’s Tails”. Wow! But I tried Google with a natural-language question about how much yarn I would need for a Surprise, and the answer gave pause even to my extravagant self.


And part of the trouble with this mental exercise is that I keep finding things which it would be simplest to order online. I love Carol Sunday’s “Nancy’s vest” – but why not just order the kit from Sunday, with her own yarn? Last year I went to the EYF with four patterns for shawls/scarves. That was ideal. I was looking for any suitable yarn. I need to think this thing through. 

8 comments:

  1. Anonymous1:20 AM

    I've just knitted a rugby teddy bear for a young friend, and you've given me the idea of a Calcutta Cup bear if things go well (the Grand Slam might be a touch ambitious). Please forgive me, I'm an England supporter!

    Sarah.

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  2. Anonymous8:20 AM

    Why not alternate one packet of unicorn tails with a suitable "neutral"--e.g. grey, navy, fawn, cream depending on your preference? A less expensive yarn would make if economically feasible and still be a striking jacket. CarolGilham

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  3. Anonymous12:33 PM

    I like the idea of the mini skeins alternated with one colour through the sweater.

    Have you seen the Tulip baby cardigan? I believe it was designed for sets of mini skeins. Maybe it uses less yarn in stockinette than in garter?

    http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/tulips-a-colorful-cardigan-for-baby

    LisaRR

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  4. You have sparked some ideas for me - I have a couple of sets of superwash gradients. Mixed with a solid I could do the baby sweater in Drop Dead Easy or that little overlap pullover I did. I've been thinking about how to use them. Thanks. Waterhouse longer looks far more wearable (to me) than Nila.

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  5. Allison3:19 PM

    "And if I drop one, I don’t just have a dropped stitch – the whole join could un-zip."

    Jean, have you thought about putting a locking stitch marker or even a safety pin in one of the chains of the join? If you put it in several rows below where you're working, it shouldn't get in your way and if you did drop the stitch and it started running, it could only run but so far. You'd just need to move it up (or add a second one for double safety) ever so often.

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    Replies
    1. This seems like a very good idea.

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  6. Although I have yet to knit any of them, I am taken by a new designer on Ravelry, Junko Okamoto. I think Igawa and Acorn are where I would like to start, but lots of them are intriguing to me. Very oversized. Sorry, I don't know how to do links.

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  7. Thanks so much for the referral to Ms. Okamoto! The Bright sweater has already made its way to my queue!:) Here's a link to her ravelry store:
    http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/junko-okamotos-ravelry-store

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