Thinking Ahead

Above you see some of the Koigu yarn which Janis has just sent me from the US. I am overwhelmed by her kindness.

Also above you see my daughter-in-law Ketki, on Christmas day, holding her older son James who is wearing the striped Koigu sweater I designed for him. That's the one the pattern for which is on my website, www.jeanmile.demon.co.uk, in Jamie's size only.

(That is not just a quizical expressing on Jamie's face. He was born with something called Goldenhar Syndrome. My son forbade me to look it up on the internet, and I have obeyed. Jamie's right ear is essentially missing, and the right side of his face is twisted. He will have his face corrected when he is six or seven. His parents have decided to leave the ear for him to decide about later -- doctors could either stick on a plastic one, or construct a flesh and blood one from other parts of Jamie. Meanwhile his abundant subcontinental hair does a good job of concealment.)

Our daughter Rachel, Jamie's aunt, admired his sweater, and wants one for herself -- so that's what I'm going to do. I got in touch with my friend Mary Hughes-Thompson at Foxyknits ("The Koigu Connection") yesterday to get some more of the black yarn. It's not dead black. It's sort of flecked with grey, as it might be a raven-haired beauty beginning to be touched by age.

And the nice thing about having done so much Koigu knitting in the last year, is that I know my gauge and how it will behave, so it should be easy to construct the sweater. Traditional knitting must be like this. You knit a few Fair Isle-type sweaters in Shetland jumper weight, or a few ski sweaters in a standard Norwegian yarn, and you then know how things work, and can improvise if you want to.

I'll check Mary H-T's website address for tomorrow -- I'm afraid to navigate away from here now for fear of losing my prose. Meanwhile Google will find her.