A surfeit of exuberance

It's not that I haven't been knitting - I have, every evening.  But I don't have a lot to show for it...  yet.

I really want to finish the half done WIPs (I really do) but I began by un-ravelling.  The Araucania cardigan, begun months ago, was over half finished (back and fronts done, side seams sewn and shoulders grafted) but when I tried it on I knew it was all wrong.  And it's to do with The Problem.

The Problem does not only affect my choice of pattern, and my propensity to further embellish the pattern with little modifications of my own but also my choice of yarn.

When choosing what to knit and what to knit with (or lets be honest what-yarn-to-buy-never-mind-what-I-shall-knit-with-it) it's all about superlatives - gorgeous, beautiful, soft, fluffy, intense, rich, jewelled. Then there is beaded, indy-dyed (and spun) BFL*, alpaca, silk and simple good merino.  Buying yarn is a little like buying sweets or cake - I have a tendency to go for the bright and fancy with lashings of cream.  Patterns are no different - I go for the frills and furbelows. It's my undoing... It's The Problem

Yet if I go to a shop to buy ready made, restrained is my watchword.  I look for elegant lines, cool neutral colours, natural fibres and most definitely no fancy trimmings.  No wonder sometimes I finish something with a big fanfare and much rejoicing only for it to come out very rarely as once more I pull on my old fine cashmere crew necked sweater. Or cotton knits in cream and grey

And so it was that last week  I ripped out my Araucania, marmalade** coloured jacket with its contrasting garter stitched stripes in a slightly different weight and colour yarn, the peplum and the planned button band made of applied i-cord.  The colour is fab, all the colours of  Seville orange deliciousness; the yarn a beautiful blend of hand finished fibres but why was I tempted to embellish?

There's another connection with marmalade as well as colour.  Have you seen how many ways there are to mess with the original, simple stuff made of oranges, sugar and water?  You can buy it with added whiskey, spices, nuts - even marmalade made without oranges!!  But the best way is surely plain and simple, just as with this yarn.

And so I have reined in my imagination and chosen a simple sweater pattern with a shawl collar.   I am not absolutely sure I shall have enough yarn so I began with the sleeves and will knit the body in the round up to the armholes so if necessary I can make it a little bit shorter.

 And so the Araucania is sorted, that just leaves the multi-coloured, multi-textured stash (some with beads) much of it in very small amounts - there might be a lot of hats and scarves (and several pairs of socks!)

xx

c

(I bought this today, isn't it pretty?)

*BFL - Blue Faced Leicester, a breed of sheep whose fleece spins into the perfect knitters yarn
** Marmalade - after last week's blog a twitter friend @KismetIslander suggested one could not combine Marmalade and knitting.  Ho Hum... 

Procrastination

I just cannot bring myself to throw the tulips away

In their almost dead, petal dropping state they are still so beautiful.  Like some fading society beauty photographed by Cecil Beaton.

I am the master of procrastination.  At university, despite being a mature student (a 38yo mother of 4 when I began my first year reading law at Cambridge) I very quickly mastered the art.  I know I should have known better but...

Supervision to go to - hours spent in the law library photocopying the cases and articles I needed to read before the 4pm deadline - reason, 'I could not work in the library needing the comfort of my room, coffee and biscuits before I could concentrate'.  

Essay to write, ditto photocopying and a whole packet of cadbury's boaster choc and hazelnut cookies.  

Exam revision- a master class in procrastination 

1. I needed to give the children some mummy time over the Easter holiday 

2. I could not begin to revise until I felt enough anxiety to give me the necessary drive 

3. I have to have a set of spiral edged notebooks (one for each paper), A5 size, a set of highlighter and half a dozen pencils and a pencil sharpener.  

4. day 1 of actual revision, sharpen all the pencils (and repeat as necessary between bouts of doing the actual revision)

Many years on I am unreformed.  At the beginning of the year I resolved not to have so many knitting and sewing projects on the go.  It seems that whenever a shop gives out one of those handy calico bags for life I find a new knitting project to fill it.  If you look at my ravelry page you might think that too-much-stuff-on-the-go is not one of my vices but you would be wrong.  I just don't get around to posting the WIPs.  My resolution was not to work on only one project at a time but to have less and to finish up everything that had been sat in a bag for more than a year.

With that in mind I am working very hard on my vintage cardigan.  I am nearly there, 

but I have recently experienced a return of the Old Trouble.  I bought a Swift and cannot resist playing with it and winding off the odd skein or two

 And then my attention alighted on this

Swiftly Swifted it became this

There are 800 yards of aran weight Araucania, after a search on Ravelry (it is so easy to search under yardage, weight,, style - its Google for knitters) I came up with this which the pattern says can be made in any size from size 8 up to HUGE with 750 - 1,500 yards of aran weight

© Spoked cardigan by Carol Feller

I need to make a medium sized version - very roughly I  would need 1,100 yards for this sweater. I realise I am asking a lot to make a sweater out of my yarn but there is far too much for a cowl and its too chunky for a shawl so I am stamping my feet and shouting I WANT A SWEATER.

So here is a possible solution, I have another 300 yards of a very similar colour in DK weight.  I figure the slight variation in colour will not matter as all the yarn is hand dyed and varies quite considerably (the producer recommends to knit with two balls in alternate rows to blend the colours.  As for weight, I'm thinking I shall knit all the ribbing in the DK, as the main body is knitted side to side and the ribbing added later.  What does anyone think? (and dont worry about telling me to finish the vintage project first - I'm already telling myself that!)

extra DK yarn in the centre

xx

C

PS My old college is Lucy Cavendish its well worth checking out the website,r even if setting off fo university is farthest from your mind at the moment.  I first read about the college in a women's magazine when a nurse on night duty.  I cut out the article and pinned it to my kitchen notice board.  The cutting was old, yellow, and curly before I took it down and seriously considered completing my education.