Friday, May 18, 2007

Now the Princess border really is finished. I even knit a few stitches of the Little Boy neckband last night, after it was done. We’re going to Strathardle today. When we get back, I’ll hope to polish that off and then tackle Sam the Ram – with a swirly hat for light relief once I’ve got him established, perhaps.






I know what you mean, Judith, (new comment for Wednesday) about grandchildren and fleece. Mine span 20 years in age. I find that their parents are willing enough to dress them in wool, and the small children willing enough to wear it, until about the age of seven. Then fleece takes over. Eventually the grandchildren emerge at the other end of the process as normal human beings, and begin to appreciate sweaters again – but by that time they’re big.

My overall Plan of Life, at the moment, is to tackle Theo’s cashmere gansey in the autumn. My sister will bring the yarn when she comes for the Games in August. I hope Theo will be there too, to approve plans. I’d like to do the neck like the one on my friend’s father’s gansey from Eriskay, illustrated here previously. It looks as simple as knitting the neckband back and forth with a modest overlap, and buttonholes.

This project is obscurely bound up with the wish to see Barack Obama president. We subscribe to the New Yorker but only read it when we are in Kirkmichael, undistracted by television and daily newspapers. This time I have the profile of Obama to look forward to.

16 comments:

  1. Three Cheers for the Princess!! It is SO lovely, I was just taking in the picture for several seconds gasping at the enormous feat it is to get so far. Wonderfull!

    As for the sweet Duck sweater my mother knitted, it is in the book "Best of Lopi", and is originally knitted in Lett-Lopi (Lopi Lite). My mother knit it in Heilo, a worsted weight wool yarn she/we got on a closeout sale.

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  2. Anonymous12:40 PM

    Oh, the Princess is wonderful!
    I am also looking forward to watching your progress on the cashmere gansey.

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  3. Anonymous1:39 PM

    Only a beautiful Princess could call me out of Lurkdom!! Magnifique!!! Truly a work of art!!
    Elizabeth

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  4. The Princess is so beautiful - it should be framed! Can't wait to see the cashmere gansey. Thank you for the links to the Iraqui Blogs, it is a sobering read.

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  5. Anonymous4:38 PM

    Wonderful! Such a beauty.

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  6. Your shawl is lovely!

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  7. oooo the princess is just amazing!

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  8. Anonymous5:20 PM

    {visualize commenter curtsying before The Princess} That is one of loveliest pieces I ever seen. Beautifully done!

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  9. I think I'm going to miss the Princess once she's crowned Monarch. Mind you, I'm waiting eargerly for her coronation (blocking) before I anticipate the end of this lovely process.

    Have you ever used Heirloom's Cashmino? A very nice chashmere, merino and microfibre blend; no skin-irriatating hooks as far as I can feel.

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  10. Contratulations on getting through that border! Gives me inspiration for when I can buy my own pattern for Princess this Fall. I hope I can have the same patience/skill. Bravo!

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  11. Anonymous5:51 AM

    The Princess is breathtaking.

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  12. i am impressed with your princess shawl. what a knitting challenge.

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  13. The shawl is beyond gorgeous! Congrats on the work!

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  14. I worked a very similar buttoned neckline on a gansey for my husband a few years ago, and I have been going through my notebooks to see if I wrote down anything helpful at the time. Sadly I don't seem to have made any notes at all, presumably because a gansey has only one neck so I knew I wouldn't have to reproduce it (I do have very exact notes on what I did with armhole gussets and picking up the first sleeve, which is why the two sleeves are a perfect match). A lesson for the future - write down everything, even if I don't think I need to.

    It was the 'Banff' gansey in a very early issue of 'Knitting', and I changed the pattern from flat sewn construction to purely circular knitting, without a single sewn stitch, so that in the end pretty much the only thing my version had in common with the magazine's version was the arrangement of motifs. It was my first circularly knitted jumper and my first exercise in pattern rewriting, and I was unbearably smug for months.

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  15. OMG, that shawl is amazing. I'm working through my first lace, Kiri. Much simpler, but very satisfying.

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