Seeds of Change

What do you think of ‘Seeds of Change’ as a name for my sweater pattern? I thought it had a nice ring to it firstly, because of the autumn orange colour of my yarn, which makes me think of ‘changing seasons,’ second, because it’s a sort of play on the fact that I’m using a seed stitch border and finally because if it works out well, I hope it’s the first of many patterns to come.

Here’s a pic I took of it in it’s early stages…

I love it so much I can’t stop wanting to work on it! I only stopped last night because my wrist started making that weird clicky sound again, that makes me think it’s either going to snap or solidify so I can never knit again! I consider that reason enough to take a break.

I have to admit though that it wasn’t all plain sailing from the word go. I cast on and knit about 11 rows before I realised that something was VERY wrong. It seems that when I knit my gauge swatch, I had a different tension to when I was making the actual jumper. I was only about a stitch off (curse those fractions of stitches!) but it was clearly enough to mess up my calculations. Anyway, I re-measured and re-jigged and it seems to working out well now.

I am still a little worried though about whether my waist shaping is going to end up in the right place, haha! According to the schematics it should be ok, but when I hold it up next to me, things seem a little off. I’m hoping that it’s more to do with the fact that it’s on a straight needle, and that the edges keep curling in than because it’s actually wrong.

I’m also not sure what I want to do with the neck. First I was going to go with crew, but then decided that the yarn didn’t really suit that plan, so I agreed on a vee. (Yes I had an extensive debate with myself in my head. No I don’t consider myself nuts. Yet.) Now though, I feel myself leaning towards a slash neck. I kind of don’t want to go with a slash neck, because my books don’t really offer any advice on how to proceed with them, but at the same time, it’s not like there’s much shaping or anything involved with them! I think I just see mself as binding off too early and messing it up. And while many a lesson can be learnt from messing up, I don’t want it to happen this time, the yarn is just too nice.

Anyway, that’s all for now, but I hope to keep updating soon. Thanks for reading!

I’m Designer!

A while back I managed to get in on a destash of some Artfibres Nirvana in colour number 7 (a rusty , autumn orange). I’m not really sure what possessed me to buy it, whether it was the artful shot of the 3 cones next to a flower pot or just the thought that it was a silk/cashmere blend at an irresistible price, but I had to have it.

When I pulled it out of it’s protective plastic baggy it felt just as delicious as it looked. And it was MINE! The only problem was, I had no idea what I was going to make with it. I searched all over Ravelry, and on a couple of occasions nearly came close. I considered making Green Gable by Zephyr Style, but there seemed something intrinsically wrong about making it in orange.

So then I hit upon my plan. I would design my own sweater! I made a gauge swatch (I know! Me!). I trawled through the guidance notes in Ann Budd’s ‘Handy Book of Sweater Patterns‘ and Stephanie Japel’s ‘Fitted Knits‘. Last night was a frenzy of measuring and calculating and then asking stupid questions like “‘Circumfrence’ is the whole way around a circle, isn’t it?”

Finally, I think I have it. The tentative beginnings of my very own sweater pattern. To an outsider it can only resemble the scrawlings of a mad woman, but to me, it’s a taste of things to come. I hope like crazy that it will turn out the way I see it in my head, that I’ve interpreted the advice in my books correctly, that there won’t be too many froggings and that finally when it’s all done, that it fits!

I feel like I’m standing on the edge of something amazing and I’m giddy with excitement.

Tonight the knitting begins!