Knitting, What’s New?

It’s a disaster again. I just haven’t found as much time to knit as I would have liked this week. Perhaps that’s not strictly true……I’ve signed up to Carol Feller’s KAL Ravi and had been merrily knitting away, when I had some sort of brainwave that resulted in me frogging my work. I’d managed to convince myself that I could hide my wrapped stitches better and set about casting on again. Because if you’re going to do something you should do it right, right?

WRONG. I discovered I had already been working my stitches the right way and after much playing realised it was indeed the best way (for me anyway). My epiphany was anything but and I had ripped three completed wedges out for no reason……..

Undeterred, I have set to work again.

This is Carol’s 100th pattern. The yoke is knit using short rows to shape from the neck down, with the lace band falling at the top of the bust. Stitches are then going to be picked up around the bottom of the lace and worked to form the body and sleeves. The pattern is being released bit by bit. So far we’ve had three parts. The initial download contained information on the suggested yarn and tension, etc. Clue 1 is where I’m at, I have another four wedges at least to do before I have to pick up my stitches. The joy is to come; if I remember correctly it’s some 200 stitches, hence the stitch markers, I’m hoping they help?

Clue 2 has just been released which has the instructions for knitting the body of the cardigan. It looks like there’s a couple of helpful sections on possible modifications, but I might stick to the original as I think it’s lovely. If you’d like more information on the KAL pop over to Carol’s site Stolen Stitches http://www.stolenstitches.com/pattern-shop/cardigans/100th-pattern-kal-ravi/

There’s also a forum for the KAL on Ravelry – http://www.ravelry.com/groups/carol-feller-100th-pattern-kal

My main reason for knitting the cardi is the yarn, I’m trying it out for the for the shop. It’s Cadenza by Colinette and although I’ve knitted with it before, it was some time ago now and it was only a wee little cardi for a baby, so Ravi has given me the perfect excuse. As you can see the colours are beautiful, too beautiful in fact as I’m going to have a nightmare trying to decide which ones to stock. It handles well and has great stitch definition when knitted up (see the pic below of the lace band). It frogs well, as we’ve already established, and it’s 100% Merino. And if that wasn’t enough, the 50g hanks contain a generous 120m. I think it could be a winner.

In addition to Ravi I’ve also knitted a couple more hats for Chernobyl. I’ll post up the pattern I use over the next couple of days. I’ve also been working on a new scarf design for the shop. It’s in Rico Merino Aran, which would probably have to be one of my favourite yarns, and as you can see it’s a reversible cable. Rather spookily, I was sent a similar one last week by Meike for the Chernobyl Children’s Trust collection, which just goes to show nothing is original.

I think you’ll agree it’s looking lovely.