Tuesday 31 January 2006

Um, I thought this was meant to be a blog about knitting?

OK, here’s my knitting. If you’re looking for brightly coloured fair-isle, though, I’d suggest you go here.

Last night I finished the front of Jemima. I’m not very happy with the way it looks. Here you can see the messiness that comes by decreasing on both sides of the work when only four stitches remain:


See the big gappy leaning stitch on the right hand side? I tried this a number of times (maybe I didn’t give it the best chance by doing it at night, standing up in the kitchen) and that was the best I could come up with. Any thoughts?

The other side is worse. Here you see the gap between the decreases on the neck edge and the cast-off stitches along the bottom of the neck slanting the other way:


Luckily there is a button placket to come, which I hope should mask these. If not I’ll have to try to do some kind of bias neck edging, or frog the whole thing in a fit of pique.

This arrived in the post this morning:


It’s yarn from my sister for a kidney-warmer. Please stop looking so concerned at my apparent attempt to couple amateur surgery and knitting. A 'kidney-warmer' is just my name for a kind of knitted tube she pulls on over her jeans to cover her midriff, as a friend who’s an acupuncturist often voices his concern about the danger young women put their kidneys through by wearing low jeans and short tops, thus exposing them to the cold. I’m looking forward to casting on when she sends me either an orginal to copy or her measurements, as it’ll be perfect bus knitting, if none too exciting, and a quick FO which I could do with at the moment since I'm fairly low on knitting time.

The post also brought this:


It’s an answer to the Wednesday question. There are still many bridges to cross before any dreams can start to take shape, but I’m a very happy girl.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

hold fast, don't panic. i often get nervous about neck shaping, but once the ribbing round the neck is added, the gaps should close up nicely. and if there's still a gap, it will be nothing that a well placed stitch with a tapesty needle won't take care of.

...from the leopard print chaise said...

Hello, do you have a pattern for the kidney warmer? is it just a tube? or do you have to shape it? I have wanted to make one for the longest time; for the same reasons, my acupuncturist recommended it because i am really affected by the cold. I also want to knit arm warmers, with a thumb hole (so they extend into my palm). Thanks for your help!