So I’ve been chafing at the bit to startknitting again, after hurting my wrist a couple of weeks ago. My two(main) existing wips were out, because the Jaywalkers are on smallneedles and knit tight, which I find makes my hands ache more evenunder normal circumstances, and the red cardigan is long rows, andfairly heavy even at this early stage. Clearly an excuse to cast on anew project, which – combined with the two balls of Noro I acquired onholiday – led me to the Urban Rustic gloves from Knitty.

I’ve finished the knitting of the first one, which actually meansthere’s quite a lot still to do, even though I did the finger-sidegrafting as I went along (I love grafting; it’s like magic) -lots of tidying away ends and closing up holes. I’m not keen on garterstitch, so I used stocking stitch. Or reverse stocking stitch, Ihaven’t yet decided (opinions welcome – there are photos of bothsides). I started off thinking I was going to alternate rows of theSilk Garden and the Kureyon, but of course that doesn’t work with shortrows, so instead I took advantage of the peculiarities of the patternto knit one side of the glove in one yarn and the other in the other. Ithink I like the effect on the first glove; I’ll withhold judgement onthe overall effect till I see which colours turn up on the second glove- the long colour repeats in both yarns mean the second glove willprobably be quite different to the first The glove is shorter thanI like, so depending on how much yarn is over after the second glove,I’ll probably pick up stitches around the wrist and knit it longer(perhaps swapping the position of the yarns, so the Kureyon side has aSilk Garden cuff and vice versa).

The pattern is lovely. I really like this approach to knitting gloves(not that I’ve ever knit fingers using the traditional approach); I’mgenerally a fan of holding stitches and them knitting them in later,and I even like the line of contrast on one side of each finger where Igrafted with yarn which was out of sequence with the main body of theglove. Stupidly, I forgot to photograph that line on the stockingstitch side, and the camera is both nearly out of battery, and put awayback in its bag, so it’ll have to wait.

(The colours on the Silk Garden aren’t true, by the way: the ‘red’ ispink, the ‘blue’ is purple, and the ‘pink’ is lilac. It’s a much nicercombination in real life.)

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I’ve said before that I get excited about new issues of Knitty. Imissed this one, because it came out, like, the day after I went onholiday, so although there was a fair smattering of knitters on theholiday, I was occasionally pining for the new Knitty that I knew wasout there. And now I’m home and have access to the internet again (oh,internet, how I missed you!), I’m able to say that this is a reallygood issue. And I’m even more cross that my wrist still hurts too muchto knit. It’s getting better every day, though, so any day now…

In the meantime, I shall content myself with reviewing the patterns:

• Muir is pretty, and if I ever round to getting pointy lace needles, I may well consider knitting it.
• Henryis great, and I’m definitely planning on making it (forlarge-male-friend-R – phew, that’s a lot of qualifiers!), if I everfind the right sort of yarn for it – he wants burgundy, but all of thedark reds I’ve seen are quite pinky, and would, I suspect, be dismissedas girly I love the pattern though – utterly unlike anything I’veseen before (and I usually think scarf patterns are a waste of time).
• I love the idea of Entwined,and may well steal it, although I don’t like garter stitch anythinglike enough to knit it as-is. Reversible cables, on the other hand…And the total yardage required is not so dissimilar to the total yardage of my new Noro…
• I love the description and the photography of Tussie Mussie. And I think I like the cardigan, too. Just not completely sure yet…
• The Patch Pocket Raglan, contrary to the description, strikes me as boring to knit, and too fussy for any of the men I might knit for. No, thanks.
• Roam isquite nice, but not all that interesting (if I want a raglan zip-uphooded cardigan, I’ll knit Mariah), and I’m not sure about all thatseed stitch.
• I love Cherie Amour.Switching needle sizes at the waist looks really good (I was surprisedthe yarn wasn’t switched too, it looks so different); I love theV-neck, the laciness, and – of course – the colour. And it’s a rare useof variegated yarn that I think I might wear, rather than just admirefrom afar. I might even – gasp! – knit this as is, from the pattern.
• Neiman.Well, it’s all very well having the front and back of your jumper”nearly identical” if you’re slim and not particularly busty, but I’mnot at all convinced this would suit me, which is sort of a shame,because I love the idea of using a different fibre for contrast (likemy planning hems in the reincarnated jumper of doom), and the strandedpattern is pretty. But no. Not for me.
• I like some of the ideas in Mr Greenjeans- particularly the cabled lower body and stocking stitch upper – butthe sleeves look funnily shaped to me, and I’m not convinced yarnoversat the raglan seams go with the rest of the garment.
• I like the model’s hair colour in the main photo for Boxed.
• Not very interested in Percy, although the lining fabric in the pictures is gorgeous
• Flower power is cute, but I’m really unlikely to knit baby hats, and if I did, I’d just make something up.
• I’m interested in the pattern and/or construction of Foliage, the Pecan Pie beret, and Urchin, but I wouldn’t wear wear any of them. Urchin might make a present for female-friend-R, though.
• Totally Autumn is pretty, but I have no urge to knit blankets.
• I love the individual details on Q, especially the 3D cubes pattern, but I don’t like the overall effect.
• I can’t get past the fact that I don’t like the colour of the Diamond Waffle socks. But that’s OK, because I don’t think the pattern is especially interesting.
• Cinderella,on the other hand, is quite interesting. I like the cable pattern, andI’m intrigued by the construction method. However, I can’t quite helpthinking that the description sounds like an entry to one of thosePearlescence story-telling competitions…
• I do agree with the description-writer: Back to Basics is actually more interesting than it looks. I might even knit it (plain enough for partner-R, perhaps?)
• I love the Woodins. When I was looking at the first photo, I was thinking that they reminded me of Totoro’s friends in My Neighbour Totoro, and then I got to the end of the description, and found that they are indeed inspired by Miyazaki

(Why do I know so many people with the first initial R?)

Oh, did I say “new Noro”? Yes, I did. One ball of Kureyon, and one ofSilk Garden, both in purpley-earthy colours – the Silk Garden tendstowards gold, and the Kureyon towards green, and I think they’ll belovely in alternating rows in some gloves. Or possibly somescarf-gloves

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My blog may have been quiet, but my knitting has not been inactive,until this weekend, when I nearly came off my bicycle, and I think mostof the force required to keep it to “nearly” went through my rightwrist (I’m right handed). It’s not broken, but it is splinted andpainful, and the splint doesn’t allow enough movement in my fingers toknit

So now I can’t knit, what I should be doing is photographing anddocumenting the things I’ve been working on, and writing about plansand schemes I’m considering. I’ve got things to say about thedyed-purple yarn (which is now, variously, in balls, a swatch, and thebeginning of a project), and about Jaywalkers (approaching toe numberone). I haven’t done anything else with the red cardigan because I gotbored of wrangling five balls of yarn while knitting long stretches ofstocking stitch, but if I start a complicated pattern after I finishthe Jaywalkers (or after I finish one of them, cos I think I’m toobored of the pattern to immediately start on number two) I’ll have nochoice but to take up the cardigan as TV knitting

I’ve got plenty of stashed sock yarn (oops, sorry, sock yarn doesn’tcount as stash, does it?), and a new sock book. The world is myoyster…

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