It’s been a long couple of months at Alterknit HQ with knitting spells arriving and disappearing as quickly as the sunshine in Wimbledon inspired weather. My job’s been making me blue lately and I’ve found myself drowning my sorrows in rows and rows of knitting (far better than rows and rows of something else).
I finally came back to my sweater, after a prolonged absence. Math, is seems, is something I will try to avoid at all costs. But I pushed through and have finally managed to complete the front and back pieces. I’m especially proud of the shape of the vee neck, as I wasn’t sure it would end up the way I had hoped. Admittedly, I’m not sure this is exactly what I had hoped for, but if it wasn’t then I must have been wrong!
The 'vee'
Now if could only be bothered to work out the sleeves….
Next up on the completed projects list is my North Star Tam, designed by Donna Druchunas. I love it so much. I consider this to be another step in my journey to become a Master Knitter, as I had to learn how to read lace charts. Once I worked out how it’s possible for you to still have the same amount of boxes on the chart representing the stitches, the little light bulb of clarity shone above my head, like the North Star itself 
Incidentally, if you’re new to charts, the Arctic Lace book is awesome.
I don’t have any quivut, nor do I think I’d be able to afford any any time soon (what with not being paid!) so I used one of my delightful balls of Habu Silk Mohair, that had previously lied to me about it’s yardage. I think it turned out really well.
North Star Tam
I also found out that using the regular bind off method is just not working out for me. I’ve tried using larger needles, trying to ‘loosely’ bind off but it’s just not happening. Lucky for me then that I found out about Cat Bordhi’s ‘Stretchy Cast Off’. It takes longer than the regular bind off (and I’m pretty sure it uses much more yarn), but I luffs it and it has become my saving grace on more than this tam.
There’s been a few more projects on the go but I think I’ll save those to write about another time. Until then thanks for reading!
