Decisions, decisions

I've sewn together the cardigan I'm making for a friend's baby, due next year:

Still need to get a couple of buttons for it, but otherwise it's finished. The yarn is James C Brett Marble Chunky and the pattern is a James C Brett one, JB013 - Cardigan (imaginative title there). I do like the Marble yarns (it's available in DK as well) as they're reasonably priced, 100% acrylic but don't feel like acrylic, are machine washable and have interesting colour effects. The Chunky also comes in a huge 200g ball, which meant it only took one ball to make the cardigan. The pattern is slightly annoying (having knitted a couple of Puerperiums I am now annoyed with having to sew things together in other patterns). It actually directs you to knit the edging of the cardigan as a strip and then sew it on - I think not, I just knitted it along the edge, so much easier.

Having got that finished, I was now free to decide on what to knit next, which is when the decisions got difficult. I wanted to make one of the three patterns I was given for my birthday, and settled on Everyone Outta the Pool as it's always good to have some socks on the go. This pattern works best for socks in variegated colourways and uses slip stitches to mix them up to avoid pooling. I decided to use some Trekking XXL, bought in Bristol several years ago as I thought the bands of bright colours would look good with the slip stitches.

At first I wasn't sure this was working as the green/blue sections of the yarn make it hard to see the slip stitches, but now I've knitted a bit further I like the effect it's producing. It's been a while since I did a toe-up sock, so I'm enjoying this one. The pattern has a short row heel, but these tend not to fit my feet very well as my heels are narrow and pointy, so I decided to substitute the heel from Sensational Knitted Socks, which I used for my Beaded Rib socks, back in 2007. However, it turned out when I looked at the notes I made on Ravelry for the socks in 2007, that I'd actually substituted a different heel again, this time from the second issue of Yarn Forward, which I think I sold on ebay a couple of years ago. Oops. As I now can't remember why, five years ago, I didn't want to use the heel from Sensational Knitted Socks, I think I'll go with that one and see what happens.

I also decided to start another present pattern, the South Seas Stole, and settled on some yarn from my stash, the Clicky Needles merino silk lace, which I bought on holiday in Gloucester in May. This, of course, meant getting the swift and ballwinder out.

The yarn feels lovely, and I'm really looking forward to knitting with it, but I can't decide whether to put beads on the stole or not. The pattern includes instructions for with and without beads. The yarn is handwash only, so including beads won't affect how I care for the finished item. Part of me things that I'm more likely to use the stole if it hasn't got beads on (with beads it seems more smart/evening/going out type clothing, but then stoles generally would be in that category), but another part of me wants to do more knitting with beads - I've only done a small amount before, on a workshop I took in Nottingham with Debbie Abrahams, back in 2006. I don't have any beads at home that would be suitable, but it would be very easy to get some as there are several local shops that have things like that.

So, I'm still trying to decide about that one.

Knitting progress

I got the tank top blocked, and I'm feeling rather pleased with it now. And it's in good time to be parcelled up ready for posting off to my nephew.

I've also made some progress with Isabella - got the back and the front done now, and have three-needle-bind-offed them together. Still think this is impressively fast considering it's 4ply yarn. I love the stripes and the way the colours work! Just the sleeves to go now, but I might put them on hold for a while whilst I tackle some other project(s). I've used almost two whole balls of the yarn now, so have one ball left to do the sleeves. Not sure if this will be enough or not (the whole jumper was supposed to take 300g for my size, but I have made the body slightly longer). But, I'm not overly keen on long sleeves, and I'm thinking about using my kitchen scales to divide the ball in half before I start them, so it will probably be OK. This is why I did the picking up stitches and knitted the neck already so I knew I just had the sleeves left to knit.

And my summer 2011 copy of Interweave Knits has arrived. Some really nice patterns this time.
 I've realised that although I often admire the IK patterns, I've never actually knitted one. Possibly because it's harder to get the yarn called for in the pattern over here, and although I don't mind subbing, it's harder with an American pattern because sport/DK/worsted/aran tend to not quite match up. I have bought some yarn in the past for IK patterns, just not knitted it up yet though, so I should probably do something about that. (The yarn was for the Essential Cardigan, bought whilst we were on honeymoon, oops nearly a year ago now!).

Anyway, this time round, I really like the Coral Cardigan and Greenhouse Tank.

And the Adriatic Cardi.

The Dockside Cardigan is really cool.

And I also like the Pebble and Reed Tunic, but forgot to take a photo. The Swirl Skirt is cool too, but I'm not sure if I'd wear a knitted skirt?

I suppose I could write down all the yarn requirements and take them with me when we go on our second honeymoon (coming up shortly, to the same place as our first honeymoon!) I might find a yarn shop (or six) to visit? Just like on the first honeymoon! Because that would be really sensible to arrive at a yarn shop knowing how much yarn I might need for a pattern...

Reading group

I still go to a reading group once a month. It's a nice group with a mixture of working and retired people in it so a good mixture of ages and life experience. We choose the books from a lengthy list supplied by the library, basically of books they have multiple copies of. Last year's books weren't too good, but this year's have been a bit better. In March we had Lionel Shriver's "The post-birthday world", which I didn't get on well with. I found her "We need to talk about Kevin" compelling reading, but I just couldn't get into this one. It wasn't helped by being quite lengthy and with me attempting to read it at the same time as moving house. The plot is along the lines of "Sliding doors" as in two different outcomes develop from one point in time. Trouble was, I didn't care about the characters so I didn't really care about the developments in the story!

April's book was "The piano teacher" by Janice Y.K. Lee. OK, so it's not a great work of fiction, but it was a significant improvement on "The post-birthday world". It's highly readable and interesting, but not quite at the chick-lit end of the spectrum (not that there's nothing wrong with chick-lit by the way!). The action flits backwards and forwards between Hong Kong during the Second World War, and in the early 50s where people are dealing with the repercussions of the war. Some very interesting stuff, which made me want to go away and find out more about the history of the area. Some of the characters aren't particularly convincing though and seemed to be stereotypes rather than "real" though. A couple of reading group members had lived in Hong Kong back in the 70s so could tell us how true to life the book actually was too.

I'm not going to read May's book as the meeting will be when we're on honeymoon and I fancied a month off to catch up on some other reading. So the next reading group book I'll be reading will be Edith Wharton's "House of mirth" for the June meeting (actually in July!). Apart from the group books I'm still reading "Singled out" by Virginia Nicholson, which has been on the go for a while now.

Knitting-wise, I'm trying to decide what to knit next once Thermal is finished. I want to decide on a sock pattern to make with the Opal Cotton Farli sent me, I could do with some more cotton socks now the weather has finally turned warmer. I was also thinking about making the Tea Leaves Cardigan after reading LeafGreenKnits blog about it. I had thought about buying some yarn for this on honeymoon, but I also have this in my stash which would work?

We will be honeymooning in Stratford-upon-Avon and have rented an apartment in the centre for five nights. I've already identified one potential yarn shop to visit in Coventry (where we were planning to spend a day anyway) - the Yarn Gathering, which I read about on Knit the Knit's blog. We were hoping to go and see the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in action, but of course, have managed to choose the one week when there isn't anything on! But there are plenty of National Trust properties round there so we'll probably visit one or two of those.

Flying visit

I'm off to Get Knitted at the end of this week to do a course with Farli and Penny.

On the day I'll get 10% off anything I buy in the shop, so it seems a bit silly for the yarn diet to be in operation that day, doesn't it?

I need to decide what I'm looking for. I've wanted to make Maude - from the Inside Loop for ages, so I think I'll go with yarn for that (her?). So I need either 1890 yards of laceweight or 945 yards of fingering weight. There are some really gorgeous ones already made on the Ravelry project page. I've seen the original at Diane's flat, and it's really really nice.

But I also want to make these sometime:
Hey Teach - from Knitty.
February Lady Sweater - from Ravelry.
Amelia - from Knitty.
Henley Perfected - from Interweave Knits.

Decisions, decisions...

But before I do the course I'm off to Tuscany on a work trip. Yes, I did say a work trip to Tuscany. It will be a bit of a flying visit, and unfortunately it looks like my attempt to arrange to meet up with some other knitters in Pisa isn't going to happen (typically, a work meeting got in the way, and much as I would prefer to prioritise knitting, sometimes that really can't happen). I'm still pondering whether British Airways are likely to let me anywhere near a plane whilst armed with my knitting needles.

But there are a few things I'm hoping to see whilst I'm out there. If I'm awake. My flight from Gatwick is horribly early and I'm having some doubts about even being awake during the work part of the trip...

I'll be off email and blogging most of this week. But hopefully I'll be back soon, armed with lots of pictures!