lots of knitting and reknitting

I believe that I mentioned in a previous post that I have been SUPER inspired with the knitting these days. I suppose that dyeing yarn again, and thus being surrounded by yarn most days is bound to inspire...if not I ought to be thinking of a job change. Phew, a sign that I'm on the right track! 

I seems, however, that I have become slightly over confident. All of a sudden, I think I can knit a new jumper every week...at the same time as socks, shawls and I don't even know what else. The result of this enthusiasm has been a lot of making mistakes, ripping back, re-knitting, ripping back again, re-knitting and so on. Oh well. Meanwhile the to knit list is consistently growing and growing and growing. 

Rather than grumble about it (more than I already have done just now) I think it would be much more fun to share some of my wonky knits and knitting dreams. So here it is, comin' at ya. All the knitting thoughts that have kept me awake at night...it's all too exciting!

First off, my Norn! I've loved this pattern for ages, well since the magazine came out (2012!) and just never got round to knitting it. I realized a couple of months ago that I've been hoarding Pom Pom magazines since the beginning, but not knit a single project from any. Well, I can say with certainty that all of that nonsense is about to change! I love this simple little crop top. Garter stitch, a little cable, hand dyed yarn. I love it all! The pattern calls for the Uncommon Thread DK. I have some, I love it, but I chose to knit this is my own MCN Worsted. These 3 skeins of Raven were sitting in my stash when I came home. They had already been knit into some failed projects and I felt it was time to give them a good home...final resting...shape, if you will. The pattern is simple and clear, I thought I'd be able to knit this up in a couple of days. Well, I have messed it up countless times by now (all because I'm not paying attention and/or rushing). Here she is, in what I hope is going to be her final stage of re knitting. Fingers crossed that the next photos of this project will be on me, finished.

 

My next tale of woe is a great one. I shared some progress pictures of this mohair cardigan a little while back, in this post. Well it was a slog to knit...but I pushed on because I was so excited about having a brioche, mohair, batwing, colourblock cardigan (as anyone would!) Here is the cardigan, almost finished. I just had a wee bit of sewing up left to go when I tried it on at last...and learned that the sleeves hang like giant, pucker-y, crumpled, lumpy capes. Sad. So I have now begun the painstaking process of pulling out all of that knitting in mohair and am pondering what on earth I can do to use the little bits of yarn that now remain. Sad day.

There has been a success, I knit this lovely Lila jumper in Noro Silk Garden Solo. I wore my Lila to the Toronto Knitter's Frolic this past Saturday and  attracted rather a lot of attention. Never have so many people wanted to stroke me before! It seems that many people have been slightly dubious about just how this beautiful colour would knit up. I'm feeling well chuffed with myself for being the bold person to go forward and knit an entire mental birthday cake jumper in the stuff!

Plans for this afternoon are a fun adventure walk to the lake and taking some proper photos of me in my 'mental birthday cake jumper' !

Next up in the cast on queue are a couple...a few shawls that I've had my eye on...

I couldn't help but hold onto 2 skeins of Dusk Merino Lace that I dyed up for the Knitter's Frolic...sorry folks, but it was my favourite.

So, the lovely merino lace is going to become one great big Halligarth shawl! It's been ages since I did any serious lace knitting, so I'm really looking forward to getting into this one.

Next up, some Wellington Fibres 3 ply. It's a lustrous, soft and fluffy combination of their own beautiful mohair and wool. I could not leave this behind when I visited the mill and farm at their open weekend a little while back ( more to come in this later). Anyhow, I cannot wait to cast on a 006 in this yarn...garter stitch AND tassles. I cannot want for anything more!

And last, but not least I have specially dyed some of my favourite colours of Polwarth and Alpaca to knit up a really, really big Quill Shawl. I have wanted to knit this pattern since the beginning of time it seems, but never had enough of the right yarn. Well, I've finally fixed that problem by MAKING exactly the right amount of the perfect yarn!

There are so many more ideas and projects to share, but you must be getting a little bored of me by now. I shall save it for next time!