Tuesday, May 09, 2017

That was a pretty good day. I got the car insured, in the nick of time  -- our previous insurer has decided to stop insuring private cars. My husband continues to mend.

And I knit forward with the Polliwog. Mary Lou (comment yesterday) has pointed me to a couple of errata, one of which I had figured out for myself. It’s going to be a jolly little sweater.

When I was first married, I blush to remember, I knit a “matinee jacket” (remember them?) for our niece, my husband’s sister’s daughter, for her first Christmas. She will have been six months old, so I thought she qualified as a “baby” – at that point, I hadn’t even met her. But even in 1957, young ladies of six months didn’t wear matinee jackets, however well-knit. My poor sister-in-law was hard put to find language to thank me. The Polliwog is going to be a different story altogether.

 I have been thinking about the future. It deserves one of those decision-cartoons which occasionally turn up in the press. I think I can maintain two major WIPs at once, from this list:

Alexander’s Fair Isle vest. Calculations remain to be done.

“Nancy’s vest” from Carol Sunday, using the Blacker “Samite” yarn I bought at the EYF. You may remember that I chose a nice dusty red which turned to brown in my hands as soon as the ink was dry on the cheque (so to speak). (Andrea was there too and bought a lovely old-gold shade.)  But brown is not entirely inappropriate for Nancy’s vest.

A yoke sweater. If so, which?

          --Kate Davies’ “Miss Rachel’s Yoke”. I’ve got it; all I have to do is knit it.

         Something using the yarn I bought from the Ginger Twist studio last year, combined with one (or more) of my packs of gradient yarns. The possibilities here are

o   – Kate Davies “Port Charlotte” pattern from her new “Inspired by Islay book.
o   – the cover pattern from the “Heart on my Sleeve” e-booklet I bought recently to support work against malaria.
o   – why do I need a pattern? Knit an EPS yoke and put the gradient yarns in as stripes.


n    Just this afternoon I encountered Marie Wallin’s “Lovage”. Oh dearie me!

7 comments:

  1. I do remember those little jackets. My daughter was born in 1982 and had two gifted to her, which she wore often. I think we are quite behind the times here in Iowa.

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    1. A matinee jacket would be very welcome and attractive in the early weeks. What i failed to grasp in '57, never having known one, is how fast babies grow up.

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  2. my children born in 1986 and 1987 both had several matinee jackets, complete with matching knitted knickers. oh me. oh my. Knitted by fond Aunts. I only knitted two garments for them; a baby surprise jacket from a Sunday magazine, and a delish poncho with great cables on it.

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  3. Lovely Lovage - yes, Marie Wallin has a superb colour sense and those motifs are wonderful. I'm in love with a textured sweater in her new "Springtime" book.

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  4. Following your usual practice, you need two projects, one simple and one complex. The time has surely come for some Fair Isle, not least because it urges you forward to knit just one more row.

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  5. It seems as though you are well on the way with the concept of the Fair Isle vest, so that should be paired with something simpler. I'm not a bobble fan, so Port Charlotte doesn't get my vote. Are the gradients fingering weight? I've looked a set I have and thought about a yoked sweater with stripes as well. Great minds.

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  6. Anonymous9:18 PM

    Yes, I love Lovage too and Cherry and Orkney. And, as if they weren't enough, Marie is on Unst right now photographing her new collection.

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