Tukats

Temporary Distraction

I'm still finishing up my Charlotte's Web and my yawn cotton pullover, so instead of boring you with progress shots, I found this in the Sak's catalogue.  Simple, elegant, versitile, charcoal on light grey, not to mention cashmere.  Me want.  Me want bad.

Shhhsh! She's Knitting Lace...

That's the way I felt when I first cast on for Charlotte's Web.  I took myself to a quiet room and concentrated on getting into the pattern, which is absolutely addictive.  I don't think there's too many knitters out there who haven't already knit CW, but this is my first. 

Knitting lace has always been a little intimidating to me, probably because I haven't done a lot of it, but I do love it.  When I first looked at CW's pattern, I thought, sheesh, what have I gotten into?  So I read through it, searched the web and found Between The Stitches, which has a short tutorial that was totally helpful and simplified the pattern.  I HIGHLY recommend printing that out before you begin, if you're a lace newbie like me.

I love watching the colors change through my fingers as the Koigu goes racing by, and it wasn't until about Row 48 that I noticed that on every right-side row, I'd be holding my breath until I got to the end and then let out a big "Whew!"  Now that I'm on Row 97 of 154, I'd most likely pass out if I kept that up, but I'm much more relaxed now.   This is the third time I've knit with Koigu, and I'm always amazed by the beauty of it, its softness and quality.  I mean, I made a whole sweater on US3 needles with it and never tired of it, it's that good.

Since I began CW, I've practically deserted my Top-Down Pullover, but I'll pick that up a little today.  It's just all that white, cotton stockinette is not exactly inspiring, and with VK and IK coming out with their fall issues, it's got me thinking ahead to those crisp chilly autumn days ahead.  What did catch my eye was an advertisement from Blue Moon Fiber Arts promoting their Raven Series.  My God, those colors.  Obsess?  Who?  Me?

Now on to updating my Ravelry notebook.

Have you ever been knitting along on something that you've designed with the nagging thought, "I'm not sure about this," row after row after row?  Well, for me, that's my inner eye telling me, "Whoa, stop now.  B.I.G. mistake." Such was the case with my Crystal Palace Waikiki Shrug Not To Be.  I just wasn't feeling the love there.  The final nail in that project's coffin was when I asked myself, "Will you really wear this," and the answer was a resounding "NO!" 

After all, it was supposed to be a tank that would have been too sheer, and the colors and texture were just not working for me, so it was zipped of those needles as fast as can be, with nary a twinge of guilt showing its ugly head anywhere.  Mr. Tukats actually helped with the unraveling process.  There's your sign!  Some lucky, creative person will hopefully be the recipient of it when I post it on Good Yarn Karma.

I did make up a top-down pattern on my Sweater Wizard, though, and have begun that for the Sandnes Mandarin Soft that was in my stash.  I'm still thinking on a color-block sweater, white, red, then black, or just a border with the red and black.  I'll have to decide soon, because I've come to the divide of arms and body.  The yarn is very splitty.  I actually don't think they make it any more.  Same gauge as All Seasons Cotton.  Nuf said.

I got the new Vogue Knitting last night and I'm in love with Veronik Avery's cover jacket.  That's going on my "I think I have to make this, but let's consider it for a while" list.  And it's for the same ol' reason, living in Southern California, it will have limited wear, even as a coat, but I really do love the design.  As for the rest of the magazine I do have to tell you, a lot of the sweaters I saw, I'm not happy with where I think fashion is going, all big and bulky.  I don't think that style looks too good on anybody.  Anyway, didn't we just do that in the 80s?

Oh, what's this, you say?  Why, it's Charlotte's Web, of course.  I bought the yarn and pattern a while back from lovely and talented Julia, and it fits the bill of what I'm trying to do right now:  Stash busting and lace.  Yeah, I know, everyone's done it and it's mosied on down the popularity chart at this point, but some patterns stand the test of time, and I think this is one of them.  My toughest decision is in which order to knit the colors.  Any advice or recommendations would be highly appreciated.