Attacked

So I got the Christmas things for the Small People finished off today: they are too little to read the blog, so I can tell you about what they will be receiving.

Princess Girl will get this top-down “recipe raglan” sweater: there’s a set of calculations you can do that tell you how many stitches to cast on for the neckline and where to do the increases and for how long and you just keep on working your way down and the thing turns into a sweater. It’s quite amazing, actually, and was a great way to knit this as I had just *barely* enough yarn, so I was able to use up all the pink, then knit the green for the bottom of the sleeves (which are 3/4 length and bell out into little ruffles just below the elbow) and continue with the body of the sweater (which has a flare at the bottom,it’s not just hanging oddly) until I had only enough green left to do the button band and collar. The yarn was actually a Christmas gift to me last year, from The Reluctant Farmer. He suspects that qualifies this sweater as regifting, but I’m thinking that in this case the gift is in the labour and design, not the yarn.

Her brother will be receiving this Dead Fish Hat, modeled here by The Boy who generously offered his head for test fitting.

I made one like this for another small person I know, and while it was here awaiting delivery The Smaller Boy (who used to be called Dinosaur Boy but that just doesn’t seem the right name for him anymore) kept trying it on and admiring it. So, The Smaller Boy shall have one of his very own.

With those knitting tasks out of the way, I need to go back to book project knitting. Except, you see, when I woke up at 5 am (due to the howling 90 km/h wind, which has finally died down) I was attacked by another shawl design idea. Attacked, I tell you, it simply would not leave me alone.

I think I know who to blame, too.

This beautiful, very shiny, very bright green (it’s actually a lot brighter than the photo would suggest) bamboo yarn arrived in my mailbox yesterday. I won a contest at Flannelberry Fibre and this gorgeous, shiny stuff was part of the prize – along with a bottle of Soak wool wash and some tea! (Flannelberry has another contest on just now, if you have used any of the yarns she carries – Lorna’s Laces, Malabrigo, Noro, Sirdar, Fleece Artist and more - she’s offering prizes for submitting reviews, and as you can see, she sends out good prizes!)

Anyway, as I lay there in bed listening to the wind rattle the windows and make the wind turbines hum, I thought about a lovely green spring shawl made out of this bamboo. I expect I will knit this stuff up into an Aeolian shawl, actually, but I had shawl design on my mind and it simply wouldn’t let me go.

So, after making a batch of jam-filled biscuits, finishing up the aforementioned Christmas gifts, and before going back to the projects I really need to be working on, I started designing a shawl.

You see, this ball of nice green wool was lying there right on top of the sedimentary layers that form spontaneously in the fibre room. Very much like the green of the bamboo, but already wound up and perfect for testing out a design idea. And the circular needles were right here beside me, and my daytimer (which has a section for knitting pattern notes). Before I knew it, I had the beginnings of an almost-circular shawl. I think I’ve even figured out how to continue the design through the rest of the shawl body – a very simple curving series of yarn overs that suggest movement and the cycles of life. Very spring-like and hopeful. Well, it is in my mind … we’ll see what it looks like once it is actually knit up.

I did manage to put it down after I had enough done to get the general idea of the thing, and I’m once again working on the Lighthouse shawl. This is slow going as each round is now 576 stitches. It takes a very long time to knit 576 stitches. Still, I’ve got to add at least another five more centimeters to the radial measurement before it’ll be big enough to start the border, so … yeah. I’d best find that audio book and get back at it.

Just keep knitting… and knitting… and knitting…