Old shawl, new hat
Ene's scarf knit with 2-ply Jade Sapphire Mongolian Cashmere, colour Deep Denim.
After the gloves I cast on for Ene’s scarf, a shawl I had knit three years ago and loved. I had forgotten the brutal cast-on, though, and being rusty I made a mistake and had to frog and start again. Funny thing is, the same happened with
the first shawl, and at the time I was knitting lace like a possessed woman, so perhaps there is something about that cast-on that doesn’t agree with my brain. I had also forgotten how hard it is for me to knit with dark yarn and picked a beautiful blue that made things quite difficult. Still, the shawl came out well and now lives in northern California with Ben’s mom. At this point I started to reconnect — slowly — with some of my old knitting buddies and went back to Ravelry where I found many patterns by designers I didn’t know. See, I get distracted for a couple of years and when I look again the knitting blogosphere is a different place. Some of the old blogs have disappeared, some haven’t been updated in months. I am not quite sure why I am picking up this blog
again and even less sure about why others would want to read it. For now I’ll set aside the introspection and document the knitting.
Out of so many new patterns I picked Caller Herrin, a beautiful hat inspired by the colors of Britain’s North-Sea coast. Not having any 2-ply Hebridean handy, I used some KnitPicks Palette. Not quite the same, but if you want to do something NOW, you don’t want to wait
around for your yarn to arrive form the Isle of Lewis. My order shipped promptly on Jan 11, but no matter how much I stalk the mailman, there is still no sign of it and unfortunately no tracking number. In the meantime, Ben is wearing his hat knit with non-Scottish colors. I am not loving the Palette yarn, but I’ve been using it a lot for swatches and the hat is not bad. When my 2-ply Hebridean gets here (when, oh when?) I’ll probably do something different with it than I had originally in mind.
Caller Herrin for Ben
For the past few weeks I’ve been spending all my knitting time making swatches, trying out colors, stitches, and construction techniques. I have all these design ideas in my head and I am trying things out to convert them into 3D objects. My design background isn’t helping as much as I expected. My training was in graphic design and interactive media and I quickly specialized in web design, so everything I did was on the screen for the screen. Now I find that design elements work quite differently outside a digital environment. When I chose colors for a Fair Isle pattern thinking that they will work well together, I discover that there isn’t enough contrast between them when they are knit. My sense of color has to adjust to the new medium. Have I mentioned that I love swatching? I hear often of knitters that hate it and it’s the opposite for me. I have to watch myself or I could end up swatching forever and never casting on for a real project.
Posted by Francesca
Cillaann
So awesome to see you blogging and knitting again. I have really missed your post.
What an adorable hat for Ben!!
Lorette
Swatching is still knitting, you know. This is second time today I’ve run across that hat pattern. I might have to try it. I’m interested to hear why you don’t like the Palette yarn. I found one lone skein in the stash (why just one??) and I’ve been tempted to buy some, but maybe not.
andrea
i played piano for ten years and then i stopped, during college. it’s been ten years since college now (!!) but if i ever sit down at a piano and try to play an old piece, guess what – i make the same mistakes! i suspect my fingers have a longer memory than elephants.
;)
Yarndude
Just added you to my blog reader, I hope that’s ok! That shawl looks gorgeous and I can’t believe that hat is made out of Palette!
philhellene
So happy to read about your knitting again!