In the last week, I’ve had two crafting dates with different groups of women, and I’ve resurrected two old projects. In the first crafting date, with one knitter, one mender and one, umm, court jester (R did bring some work with her, but in the end she didn’t do any of it), I swatched yet another stranded project, with the leftover Coriolis yarn, which produced a much better swatch than either of my previous stranded attempts. The next day, I cast on for the project.
The second crafting date was with two knitters (Dyddgu and White_hart), one of whom had come to play with my spinning wheel. I gave a mini-spinning lesson (and my student produced a mini-skein of genuine yarn!), learnt the Norwegian purl technique, and talked a lot about knitting as well as about many other subjects. I knitted on the new stranded project, which you can see to the left. This is going to be a slipper rather than a sock, and the swirly pattern is from “Kiehkuralapaset – Swirly Mittens” by goldenknits / AnneL, which I found on Ravelry. I’m really happy with this project so far. The colour contrast is much better than both of the previous attempts, I love the swirly pattern, and I’m really starting to get into the two-handed knitting thing. I even, with benefit of Dyddgu’s Norwegian purl lesson, added some short rows on the sole at the base of the toe, to lift the pointed toe up slightly.
Also inspired by the knitterly conversation, I’ve taken up the purple cable cardigan again, and am making solid progress. For once I seem to be doing quite well on having two projects actively on the go at the same time – this is now nearing the point where I can split off the sleeves, and it will then go much more quickly.
Part of the reason I’m now making progress on this cardigan is that I’ve finished spinning the yarn for my next purple cardigan, but I am being strict with myself and not casting on until I’ve finished another one. Three cardigans in progress is too much! And to minimise the chances of me cheating on this, I haven’t yet washed and set the yarn, so I can’t just cast on on a whim – it’ll take a few days of washing and drying first, by which time I might be able to summon up enough sternness to tell myself off
