Alexander rang up yesterday and said that he doesn’t want a fisherman’s sweater. He wants color. KF? No, he wants Fair Isle. Well, that’s going to be easy and fun, but for the time being we agreed – he suggested – that I forge ahead and knit a gansey for Ketki. So I have ordered Herring Girls Pink, or at any rate I have enquired of the website whether two cones is enough, and expressed an intention to order.

It is a good general rule of life, when things seem to be drifting inexorably in the wrong direction, to stand up and say so. Can’t hurt, might help.

My current thought is to go for Mrs Laidlaw’s Pattern (Thompson), for old time’s sake. No chart is provided, so the swatch can also serve as a stand-in for a chart. I also like the Snakes-and-Ladders pattern shewn on a child’s sweater on the cover of Brown-Reinsel. That’s my fallback position.

Mrs Laidlaw would have to be done all-over, I think, without a plain section at the bottom before the patterning starts. But I want a shoulder strap – I love shoulder straps. Maybe I could put a snake on it, if that’s the term – one of those cables that never crosses, as in Snakes and Ladders just mentioned. And a stand-away collar. Mary Morrison has some remarks in her post of February 2 on that subject.

And as far as a Fair Isle for Alexander is concerned, pattern hardly matters, anything, more or less, will do – colour is all. When I knit Rachel’s jacket last year, I restricted myself severely to colours which were already in my considerable stash. The stash is, to all appearances, utterly undiminished, but I think I will allow myself more latitude this time. (=order more yarn, if necessary)

Meanwhile, here’s a progress pic of the Princess. I’m working row 40, which begins to sound seriously grown-up. I have been knitting lacey chevrons all this time, moving outwards in both directions one stitch on every row. And last night, major excitement – they met, and became no longer chevrons but one long, zigzag line the length of the border. And new chevrons, which will ultimately become a parallel zigzag line, have sprung up.

It’s such fun, and so easy. I think that edging was the hardest lace knitting I’ve ever done, all 85 repeats of it. I still can’t believe how easy the border is, so far.

But talk about undiminished. I knit a thousand or more stitches a day. The 20 gram ball of yarn never changes size in the slightest.

Comments

Franklin, Janis, thank you. I wrote a comment of my own to reply to yours – attached to yesterday’s post.