Tatami by Melissa Wehrle (Sundara Yarns)

My Ravelry Post: here
Yarn: 21st Century Yarns 4ply in Moss
Needles: 3.75mm
Notes: The only changes I made were to leave off the ties, and to add a garter edging to the front, since it turned out a little bit smaller than I was expecting. It fits great though. In fact I’m wearing it right now.

The only other thing is that the 4ply is naturally really sticky and didn’t want to drop at all, which meant I had to drop all the stitches myself by hand, which took quite a long time. It was totally worth it though, since the colours are superb.

Conclusion: I really love this cardigan. I really do think that 21st Century Yarns produce some of the best varigated yarns in the country, and now it’s proved it’s stickiness I’m tempted to use it for a pattern that needs steeking. At some point.

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In other news I finished the barbara shawl for my grandmother’s birthday (late next month) and have started a DK version of the Henry scarf for my grandfather. So as soon as I can sort out a camera with more than a slither of battery I’ll post photos of them.

I also cast on a Elizabeth Zimmerman Hybrid Jumper in Garthenor Jacob aran yarn in black (it’s actually more of a very dark brown.) I only cast on for it yesterday afternoon, and in my usual amount of knitting time, I’ve already knitted 7″. Having rarely knit with anything heavier than dk I’m shocking and a little thrilled!

Thus I’m planning to keep a close knitting diary to see how long it takes to knit up:

Day 1: Body 7″. I’m already on my third ball (of 14), and the body is only 136 st in the round.

…but maybe a piece of cake.

I had one of those ideas last sunday which I knew from the start was never going to actually happen.

I thought “I have a number of projects on the go, and some of them need to be finished soon, and some of them should have been finished AGES ago, and therefore need to be finished as soon as possible so that they are late, but not OMG!LATE!.

I know! I will promise to only knit a certain project on a certain day, so that each project gets some knitting time each week, and thus will get finished quicker (than having no knitting time spend on them at all.)”

I even made a table with the days of the week in it, and next to that, the project I should knit each day, and then added the information into my diary.

Then I totally ignored my careful plan, cast on Tatami, and have knit only that so far this week.

Ooops.

Mind you, despite being on 3mm needles Tatami is coming along. The 21st Century 4ply that I originally (bought for a large but ultimately dull shawl that I abandoned) is as lovely as I remembered it being, and apart from my worry that I’m not compensating enough for my slight lack of row gauge, it’s all going pretty well. Even when I add in both sleeves the stitch count only goes up to just over 200st which is totally manageable.

That said, the barbara shawl and the dreaded looks-like-fairisle-kinda-but-is-really-evil-intasia waistcoat still need finishing well before Christmas.

(It’s a nice shawl, but it grows alot, and maybe I’m just not in a shawl mood? – though I hope that’s not the case since I like knitting shawls generally. Anyways I’m having a break…)

(PLEASE NOTE: This is the original – not the one I’m knitting. The one I’m knitting looks like this:

Or even worse – like this! [Turn you face away if you're fainthearted!].

(Luckily other Bluestockings have offered to maybe help darn some ends in. It has been suggested that it gets passed around the table, one darned in end at a time. As thanks, they all get invited over to my house to watch my hands shake as I cut the steeks for the armholes and neck.)

Yes, I’m slightly in denial about both of those projects at the moment. So tatami it is. Well tatami, and some Saartje’s Bootees (pdf), for our wedding photographer Sarah, who I’ve just found out is about to give birth. *raids sock yarn half balls*