Knitting: A Knitty Cardi

So I'm really enamored with my latest project. I fell hard in multiple ways. For some time I've been wanting to make a nice light breezy spring/summer cardigan/tee etc. Last week, I went so far as to peruse many fine publications at Temptations in Dublin. I even thought I'd settled on a beautiful project from dear Jane Ellison for Mirasol. Anddd... I even bought a skein of this fantastic blue yarn. It's dreamy! The name escapes me right now, but it's a merino/silk blend (I believe) and it has a little bit of a sheen to it. Fantastic.

Anyway, I went home to mull it over and to swatch.

I mulled, but I didn't swatch. I just didn't feel like winding that pretty hank of yarn, only to start a swatch of a project I might never make. See, while I really LOVED the look of the cardigan, I don't like knitting in pieces. And I LOVE Jane Ellisons patterns. She definitely has what I would call a classic style. Many of her designs are modern, yet timeless. And some give off a vintage feel. I have several pattern books by her and I LOVE the sweaters and items in those books, but you know, I still haven't knit one. NOPE, not one.

So I continued to pause and mull as it were. I thought about doing the math to do it as one piece, I thought about top down and more math. And it wasn't in me to start, so I didn't.

WHICH turns out to be a good thing because on Sunday Cath and I met up for tea at Zen Cha. Got my fave Lavender Latte (delicious times a million). And then we headed to the Merc. While there I happened upon this delicious light COOLWOOL by Elisabeth Lavold. It's a 50/50 wool/cotton blend. Is super soft and I would say it's a DK or sport weight. Sometimes those weight definitions are lost on me, but it's definitely not a worsted weight and it's not sock weight, so to me dk/sport. Not sure if those are interchangeable, but that's what I know.

Anyway, the color I put on HOLD was called, Ultramarine, it's blue. But seriously there is a huge color palette for this yarn, it's all gorgeous. I purchased one skein because I was going to swatch first and I still had the Mirasol sweater in mind. (Cath bought a love tan of same yarn for a fantastic project as well!)

But then..... the spring/summer issue of knitty popped up and I found the PERFECT sweater for this yarn. It's the Tappan Zee by Amy King. So far it has everything I want.

1. It's top down (yay)
2. Looks lightweight and breezy
3. Short sleeves
4. Yarn works up to the perfect guage
5. Easy to read and follow the pattern along

So I cast on the other evening despite not being quite to the end of the socks which was a mistake because this thing has really taken a hold of me! The first night I finished a little over an inch and then day 2, I did increases and still managed to eek out another inch. I love the look of this thing so far. Granted I still have quite a ways to go. But I'm moving into the "design" section next, so I'll be following a chart for a bit so that will be fun. I'm full on committed to this project (ravlink) and let me tell you it feels fantastic.

Someone please remind me of this when I get to the bottom half and have to do stockinette for miles!

Knitting: To steek or not to steek

So I'm going to cast on for Addi's sweater today. It's a fair isle cardigan pattern, written as a flat knit, but rather than do that, I'm considering adopting Elizabeth Zimmerman's preference to knit in the round and steek it. I have another project that will be steeked which is the Aguona laptop bag kit from Knit Picks, but that will be some time as I've set it in hibernation for a bit. Just too many other things going on, but I haven't lost my love for it, nor am I mad at it, but it is in timeout all the same. :)

So steeking, it what's in! Just kidding, but I happened to run across an old interweave with a steeking article, of course I have all of EZ's references about it and the recent knit picks catalog has a section on it. SO I have plenty of resources to get me started. Well, I better go so I can get this casted on and get going. It should be an interesting learning experience.