I spent the May Bank Holiday getting reacquainted with my summer cottons, which have been put away for the past six months. These are the packs of cotton blends, set aside for garments. Except I haven't been using it up much! I did a quick count and I have enough for 25 garments, and that's after years of destashing. And doesn't include any lightweight but not cotton yarns.
So I'm knitting a cardigan. It's not from the old stash though. It's a recent purchase. This is Stylecraft Malabar, an aran weight cotton silk blend, nice to knit with and less than a fiver for 100g.
The pattern is Quick Sand, a top down seamless and buttonless cardigan. I do hope I like it when finished, as I've bought several more of her patterns, and they're all like this!
This was taken over the weekend, I'm now on the body of the cardigan, Easy knittng so far, but I see there are short rows later on (not that they're difficult, but may require counting instead of mindless knitting).
A cowl, This is Niagara, for the May Stitchnerds KAL. The yarn is Countess Ablaze Madame Smoosh Singles, in Haze. Lovely to knit with.
And finally ... not on the needles yet, but I have the yarn... Boo! MKAL, Be with You.
I knew the KAL was imminent (May 4th) but it didn't twig until the weekend that the KAL was starting on Monday. I had already decided to work this shawl in one yarn only, and a laceweight at that, and only have one box of laceweight. But still... it took me a whole day to decide on the yarn (Handmaiden Silk Lace) in Topaz and order the beads. After all of this, I had a change of mind, and ordered some Handmaiden Lino instead. Very slightly thicker and less slippery! That arrived yesterday and is all wound up now.
I'm still not sure about the beads. I usually go for coordingating, or silver lined, or clear beads. I'm not someone who goes for contrasting ones, worry about them looking like spots! But just in case I feel like being a bit daring, I've ordered some silver/smokey amethyst ones. I shall see what they look like when they arrive. Clue 2 was released this morning, so I need to get a move on!
The yarn's colour is Mint, but I think of mint as being more blue than this. Coincidentally Word of Mouth on R4 this week was all about colour words and their etymology. Very interesting. Who knew that pink used to be yellow, or that maroon was a chestnut brown Worth a listen.
Comments