Monday, July 16, 2007

Until The Deathly Hallows arrives...


... I might as well knit. Here's the latest project -- and the first one for just me in a long time. I know, I know, Arwen is still languishing on the needles with unfinished arms. I just can't take too much straight-up stockinette at one time. So I cast on a complicated project in hopes of getting sick of fiddly fair isle and retreating to the oasis of Arwen sleeves. So far, I haven't felt the need to retreat, and with Saturday's book release nearing, I have a feeling I won't be retreating anywhere but Hogwart's for at least a week...

This is the yoke of a fair-isle yoke cardigan in Brown Sheep Naturespun fingering, design put together by me but based on patterns in Sheila MacGregor's Traditional Fair Isle Knitting. When I started out I was concerned that the blue was too bright to blend with the rest of the colors, but now I am glad I kept at it. And now my only concern is that the yoke is going to look weird with the short-row extra length I put in the back to raise the back part of the collar up. Knitting this has made me remember why I love stranded knitting best of all: though the color changes do take more time than just straight stockinette, they don't seem as time-consuming as cables to me, and the change in the pattern as I knit up row after row is so compelling that it has me saying "just one more row" all evening.

Also blog-worthy are these shots of a finished project modeled by its adorable recipient, Andrew, in the arms of Auntie Jen:

Here he's grabbing his ear and making a face because he's sleepy, and here he is ten minutes later:

3 comments:

Batty said...

Gorgeous FI work! It looks so even, and the colors are beautiful. Nothing about it is too bright, it's just perfect.

And that baby sweater is adorable. Andrew is a cutie!

Amanda said...

It doesn't get cuter than a real baby modeling the handknits!

Stefaneener said...

As I noted before, lucky baby. And lucky you to have such an adorable model. Colorwork is tremendously addictive. Yours is lovely.