Knits

I need to stop looking at Jillian’s blog. She always posts links to patterns that I want! She’s done it again - sort of. She’s pointed to a new cardigan design and along the left are some other patterns available. And now I must knit the Sizzle top. It is even boyfriend approved: “You need more plunge tops,” he said. The problem is the yarn it calls for - doubtful I’d find it in the UK, but I’m not thrilled by any of the colours anyway. I’ve had a slightly quick look for substitutes and many are too light (weight-wise) and when I find something suitable, the colours are dull dull dull!

So I wandered over to KnitPicks. I’ve never used their wool and of course they won’t ship direct to me, but that’s not a problem - I have connections! I am considering using their Andean Silk & Andean Silk Twist in one of the shades of green. Have any of you used this yarn? What do you think? I’m looking at either Lettuce or Leaf. What about another substitute for the yarn called for - Silk Bijou/Shizuku by Olympus. It’s not like the UK is extremely hot, but I imagine a yarn that is 75% wool is going to be quite warm - especially if I want to take said top on holiday to a sunny clime where I might get to bare my arms! I think I’d end up baring more than my arms should I wear that top in the Mediterranean in the summer! Other options: Rowan’s Summer Tweed (lots of nice colours, but the tweedy affect might be too weird), Rowan RYC Luxury cotton (none of the colours really thrill me), or Debbie Bliss Cotton cashmere (I’ve knit with this before and it’s nice and has nice colours). Thoughts?

Anyway, you really came here to see some pictures…

Here it is - another terrible photo, but it is the completed Cinnabar scarf. I am rubbish at blocking. I did it, but I was rubbish at it. And I didn’t actually have anywhere to put it to dry so I had to sandwich it between two towels to keep the cats off it. It didn’t work. They thought I’d laid out some sort of luxury bed for them! They were fighting over who got to lay on it!

Details:

Pattern: Cinnabar scarf from December 2006 MagKnits (by Angela Hahn)
Needles: Boye interchangeable circulars US 4 (used them as straights ’cause it’s easir to carry circs)
Yarn: Rowan RYC Wool cotton in Limestone - 4 balls (slightly less)
Gauge: ??
Finished measurements: just shy of 6′ x 5.25″ (it grew a whole foot after blocking!)

Modifications: None intentional… I just found myself missing parts of repeats so I incorporated that into my version as, you know, design features. I did nine repeats of the cable pattern and a single repeat of the seafoam pattern between each of the cable patterns with the exception of the space between cable repeats one and two and eight and nine where I did was the pattern read!

And I also started on the Touch of whimsy hat for my sister. I’m using the same wool as in the Cinnabar scarf, but in a dark green. It is moving along surprisingly fast. In fact, if I hadn’t been busy both last night and tonight, I’m sure I would’ve finished the hat. Grrr. I would’ve liked to have finished it and put it in the post before I head off to Prague tomorrow!

So I’ll see you all next week! I need to go figure out what knitting I’m packing - forget about the clothes!