Tea and Cakes

The last couple of weeks seem to have flown by. Work, college, life, eh, it just seems to have been a never ending stream of things to do.

This morning (just) I checked twitter, realised it was the day of the Dublin monthly spin-in in Powerscourt, grabbed my spindle and headed in. I ran out of the fibre I had with me just before it was time to pack up, so I did a bit of knitting too, and spent a very relaxing few hours in good company playing with fibre. It was super, and just what I needed. The spindle was spinning instead of me.

The consensus on the cardigan is that it is indeed too big for me. (I say consensus, and what I mean is everyone thinks so except the eternal optimist R, who insists I’m just wearing it wrong). So, friends and family, anyone want a cardigan? It’s lovely. I’ll even put a button on it for you.

So, here’s me in the cardie. Granted, it doesn’t really go with the dress I was wearing today, but it was a quickly grabbed photo. It also doesn’t have a button yet. It needs one, at the top.

See? It’s lovely, it’s just too big. It’s very squishy and stretchy, and it swamps me a bit.

Frogging it is not an option. There are 10 balls of yarn in there, plus 2 out of every 3 balls had a knot, so there are many, many ends that I sewed in. I’m not ripping it out. Shrinking it won’t work either – the yarn is machine washable, and really, it’s too lovely to mess around with like that.

So. I’m thinking. I don’t think it’s meant for me. Which means I need to work out the best way to go about finding the right home for it. I’m open to any suggestions.

This is my Six Nations cardigan.
It’s a lovely pattern (Shalom Cardigan, from Involving the Senses), and lovely yarn (Rowan RYC Cashsoft Chunky), but I do not love the cardigan.
It’s too big for me.
This is the sort of project where that shouldn’t really matter, and I made it slightly smaller than called for anyway.
But it’s still too big. (No, I didn’t swatch, but I don’t think that would have helped, it just doesn’t suit me).
Right now it’s drying, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. I don’t see myself wearing it.
So now I’m a bit stuck, as I don’t really know what to do with it.

To cheer myself up though, I’ve cast on for some Garter Stitch Mitts for myself, to replace my Fetchings as spring/autumn wear, as the missing one never showed up. I love this pattern. It’s simple, pleasingly constructed, and works really well in the tweedy yarn I’m using.

In an attempt to start blogging again, I’m copying Chris, and posting a list of things. This is mainly because I have too much that I want to say, and don’t really know where to start, and I’m finding it a bit overwhelming. I’m finding a lot of things overwhelming, at the moment.

Thing 1: I’m supposed to be studying right now. I’m not though, clearly, but I’m not beating myself up about it. Instead, once this is done, I will make myself a cup of tea and sit down to read some more of my book.

Thing 2: I’m currently reading The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood, and for the life of me I can’t work out why I haven’t read it before. It’s hard to tear myself away from it to do the other things that have to be done, like housework and washing clothes.

Thing 3: Even though the sun has gone in I have clothes outside on the patio on the airer. Technically this is against the rules, and it’s probably not much use anyway as it’s a bit chilly today, but I do like my clothes to get some fresh air every now and then, and if the sun would come out for just a little bit too it would be super. So much nicer than clothes dried in front of a radiator.

Thing 4: I should really also be sewing the many ends in on my Six Nations cardigan, which I finished yesterday. It started out as my Knitting Olympics project, but I didn’t finish in time, and worked on it in front of most of the rugby matches instead. I should be taking advantage of the long weekend to get it washed and dried while I’m home and can leave things outside to dry. I’m not sure I like it though. Which is often how I feel about the bigger things I have knit. I will get it finished and washed and dried and I will take pictures.

Thing 5: I got engaged. Or rather, we did. That was a little while ago now, but it’s been more than a little while since I blogged. I have a beautiful ring that’s from my paternal grandfather’s family, but right now it’s with the jeweller waiting for the goldsmith to have a look at it and see if it can be re-sized down enough to fit me.

Thing 6: I’ve spent some time finding out about family recently, and have some lovely photographs and interesting histories, and I might put some here, for me to remember.

Thing 7: This is me. I’m quite fond of this photo.