Sunday, May 08, 2011

The yarn came yesterday. Full marks to Starmore:



I love it, perhaps all the more because I have been abstemious for so long (18 months, now) and because the one thing my stash emphatically lacks is enough yarn in any one shade to knit anything that isn’t striped or speckled. (Not entirely true; the Lace Stash could produce a good few single-coloured projects.) And I love the colour, Ben Wyvis, and I’m glad I chose it.

It is difficult not to cast the shawl aside and get cracking. I think I’ll start with a swatch of what I intend for the central panel, the one in Starmore’s “St Brigid” in the Aran book. For one thing, I don’t entirely understand the chart. EZ’s suggestion of knitting a swatch cap with half the pattern won’t work if I’m on track for a child’s sweater – the cap would be too small for anyone. The result, as well as elucidating the chart, will give me a ballpark idea of what sort of size I’m likely to end up with. As I keep saying, it doesn’t matter, as long as the smallest grandson can squeeze into it.

Mary Lou, belated thanks for the link to your post about your aunt and her steeked Aran sweater. I think I’ll plunge ahead. The fact that the Grandson Sweater, also steeked, has held together in what looks by now like substantial wear, is encouraging.

Meanwhile the shawl border has reached the early stitches of row 47. There are 54 rows to be done before I finish the first chart, when I feel I can decently lay it aside.

I look some pictures on the doorstep yesterday in the sunshine – just think how much better these illustrations will be once I’ve attended Franklin’s class! I wanted to show you how the pattern sweeps around the corners, without the more usual mitred diagonal line. But I fear the full effect of that will have to wait until it is pinned out for blocking on the dining room floor.

The larger marker, a curtain ring, in fact, signifies the corner.



There is one extra stitch at the edges. I thought of eliminating it, since I was knitting continuously around, but didn’t. So there is a heavier line down the centre of that repeat than there is elsewhere. And on the final corner, below, where Fleegle’s system is in operation, the line looks a bit loose, despite anxious tugging every time I turn.




I posted the link to Fleegle’s brilliant idea to the Heirloom Knitting group, thinking they would seize upon it as I did as the best thing since sliced bread if not the wheel. Virtually no response.

Blogger seems to have pulled itself together on the issue of paragraph breaks. An odd episode.

2 comments:

  1. On the subject of Blogger, I have got my toolbar back now. It looks different. I was not sure if getting it back was a consequence of having a decent internet connection, but maybe it was just them.

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  2. Hi Jean
    Just to let you know there is a Ravelry group dedicated to the upcoming Knit Nation event, with a thread for those attending Franklin's classes. In case you want to check out your classmates the thread is here - http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/knit-nation-summer-expo/1644176/1-25

    Hope you have a great time, unfortunately it's out of the question for me to attend this year but who knows what next year will bring!

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