Tea and Cakes

Remember this?

Mmmmmm…. I do.

That was killing time last Tuesday before starting lessons in sweater construction with Aileen. Sadly this week I’ll be rushing to the lesson so I won’t have time to stop off for a delicious malty vanilla shake. Oh well.

The classes are a 5 week course, and there are 4 of us in the class, working away on a sweater of our own construction. I’ve had EZ’s Seamless Hybrid in my queue for some time now, and this seemed the perfect opportunity to get going, with Aileen there to guide me along.

So, last week, I swatched, calculated the number of stitches, and when I got home after the class cast on while watching season three of Battlestar Galactica.*

This is going to be a very plain sweater, based on the favourite sweaters of the recipient. Very plain. The interest for me is in the construction.

I’m using Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, and 4mm needles. It’s lovely yarn to work with, really, well, woolly. It’s hand wash only, but that’s fine by me - I don’t mind giving a special item special care.

Now, here’s the thing. The others in the class are sensibly working garments from the top-down, so that the tricky stuff is at the beginning, and then when the classes are finished they just need to keep on knitting down until they’re done. I stubbornly insisted on sticking with the bottom-up design, and until I get to the bit where I join the body and sleeves together, it’s pretty mindless.

So, really, I need to have the body and sleeves ready to join up for at least the last two lessons. Ideally the last three, but, well, we’ll see. I don’t mind this, as it gives me a reason to get through the navy stockingette in the round part as quickly as possible, and means that I should get the sweater finished relatively quickly.

I worked just over 2 inches of a 3×2 rib (compared against favourite sweater), and now it’s just round and round and round.

I have 8 inches done, 10 to go. I’m going to get started on a sleeve tonight, and then knit as much as my hands and schedule will allow over the next week. My chances of having both sleeves and the body finished by next Tuesday are very slim, but by the Tuesday after… I reckon I can make it. And in the meantime, I get to watch as a top-down cardie with set-in sleeves, and two top-down raglan’s progress.

The absolute hardest thing for me right now is that I have lovely yarn from the Avoca sale sitting right in front of me, and I have never felt so inspired to cast on a million bright, colourful, interesting designs.
Back to the navy stockingette then.
*One of the episodes near the end upset me very much. I am not happy at all with that turn of events.