The trouble with having a job is that time away from work is limited. With only a few hours in the evenings and at weekends I have to prioritise, and knitting comes first as one of life’s essentials. After all, if I don’t knit I’ll do damage to someone or something. It’s the only way to stay sane enough to turn up at work every day.
So this blog has suffered from lack of care since November, but here’s a little update on what I’ve been knitting.
I can’t say I enjoyed my lopapeysa, except perhaps the yoke. I had to work a few shawls at the same time as a distraction, but I finally finished it a few weeks ago. So here is Védís Jónsdóttir‘s Afmæli, my Once Upon a Lopi:
Inevitable, Evelyn A Clark’s Heartland Lace Shawl, turned out to be an absolute favourite and I wear it at least once a week. I added some gold size 6 beads which look OK, but I reckon I’ll stick to silver-lined clear beads for the future.
However, I didn’t enjoy the early stages and was distracted into a KAL of The Birthday Shawl by the delightful Kate’s Twirl. I used my (in)famous hand-dyed yarn which was featured in Knit Now, and it turned out rather nice. So nice, in fact, that Kate voted it the best of the KAL and sent me a set of her beautiful stitch markers. A lovely Christmas present!
And you can also go over to Ravelry to take a look at some in progress shots.
Then, as yet another distraction from my Lopi sweater, I used up some Airedale Aran in a winter-time version of Kate Gagnon Osborn‘s Springtime Bandit, Airedale Outlaw:
And to complete another year of feverishly knitting innumerable shawls, Boo Knits‘ Quite Continental:
I love the placement of the beads in Twinkle Twinkle, but not the shape nor the slipped stitch edge which I thought too inelastic. I started the picot cast-off and didn’t like that either, so finished with the usual Russian. Such a shame, because I was really looking forward to this one, but most likely the victim of shawl-knitting fatigue!
The Lopi sweater still wasn’t finished so next up was Froth, which was a bit of a marathon:
This is Jatta Saukko‘s Zetor which I’ve been meaning to do for a long time. Knitted in DROPS Lace on one of my new ChiaoGoo circulars, it turned out beautifully soft and happily goes really well with a recent addition to my wardrobe. Colour co-ordination is easy if you stick to your favourite colours!
I needed some further distraction before finishing this one, but I think that’s enough for today. Time for some knitting ….
Wow, you have been busy with the shawls!
Know the feeling. Your shawls are just amazing. I have total shawl envy!
Thanks. You’ll get the bug one day and next thing you’ll be designing (and I look forward to that).
Must be contagious, ’cause I feel a definite and severe case of shawl envy creeping up on me.
And photography envy – I love how the Quite Continental is presented!
Your shawls are beautiful.
Thanks!