Tuesday, July 21, 2009

it's like the knitting that jack built

this is the house that jack built.
this is the malt that lay in the house that jack built.

i can still recite that entire nursery rhyme/poem/tale by heart -- i loved it so well.

my knitting lately reminds of the layer upon layer that that poem builds, except that each project represents an unfinished interruption of the project before. so, here we go.

this is the project i finished over the weekend:

it's a wine bag i knit with some leftover worsted -- so quick, very easy, very fun. i did not use the colors paton suggested, but assigned my own colors to their scheme of color widths. the pattern can be found in this paton yarn book.
here it is prefelting:
i want this as a sweater!
i started this project because:

a) i needed a wine bag for a party and

b) i was bored with this:

oh, yes, clap me a river, i have begun the clapotis. in knitting as in life, way behind the fashion curve, but the noro sock yarn inspired me, i had queued it a long time ago, so i started it. the yarn colorway reminds me of van gogh's starry night.
look at those gorgeous runners -- so fun to knit the 12 rows and then rip those babies down! can you tell i'm just past the center? look on the right hand side and you can see that i am mirroring the color flow using the second skein. i center-pulled the first ball, and am pulling the yarn from the outside for the second half.

why did i start the clapotis? i was bored with this (you may remember it from a previous post):

don't you love it? it's based on this short sleeved summer cardi, using rowan's all-season cotton.
as you can see, my impulse to knit this included the urge to replace all that boring stockinette with the leaf lace pattern from nancy bush's knitted lace of estonia. here's a picture of that lace pattern in lacier yarn (the third picture on the page).


i've finished the sleeves, and just need to keep knitting down, down, down until it's long enough, then i may block it to see if i need to put button bands down the front. i don't want to button it, i like it open, but the fit is close enough that blocking it may let me know if i need that step.

i started that fun sweater because i was bored with these:

the evolution of a bag!


so i thought i might be teaching this bag, so started a fourth one as a sample, to illustrate in case i needed help teaching it. here's part of that one:

i'll probably be ripping that one out to make something else out of that yummy monochromatic noro.

i think that's enough for now. i started those bags because i was bored with other bags i was making, and i started those bags because it was too hot to knit my february lady sweater. i'll pick it up again next month -- i just have ONE SLEEVE to finish and i'll be done.

3 comments:

rachelmaydesigns said...

oooh...I love that yellow! Glad to see you are knitting away like crazy-keep up that momentum! Does it help you to knit in summer if you use bright cheery colors? I get frustrated knitting in the summer...but with a cardi like that yellow one...I think I could change my mind!

It was nice to see your comment the other day :)
Rachel May

rachelmaydesigns said...

and that wine bag! What an awesome idea for a hostess gift for a party!
Rachel May

M. Shioda said...

well at least your knitting. Me, i'm not knitting as much...That wine bag is fantastic... I think I might make a few for xmas presents, granted I can find worsted wool in my collection... now off to find the pattern.