KFYS Update and Knitting Upside-down

I’ve been knitting from my stash for two months now and I’m pretty chuffed with my progress, so I thought I’d mark the occasion with a few big colourful ‘x’s.

The yellow ‘x’s are for yarn I’ve knit up (and then put the leftovers back in the stash) or are WIPs. The orange ‘x’s are for yarn I removed from the stash with the intention of selling or op shopping it.

See the big ‘x’ over the box of red mohair laceweight at the top right? Well, now that I have a knitting machine the mohair might be making it back into the stash. I’ve always thought about knitting it up into a big blanket, but since mohair makes me itch it can’t be a blanket for me, and if I knit it by hand for someone else it would have to be someone pretty darn special who I know would go into spasms of gratitude for the gift. A knitting mashine, however, might make for speedier, less itchy knitting and less weight of expectation on the gift recipient.

With High Verocity finished, I could have thrown myself into the Kimono Top, but I was in the mood for something a bit more challenging than row upon row of stocking stitch. For one night the lounge was covered in magazines, books and yarn while I swatched, weighed yarn and considered carefully what to tackle. Everything I wanted to make seemed to require more yarn than I had (and the yarns I had were either from a small yarn dyer in the UK, handspun, or bargain bin batches from Aussie Country Spinners, so there was no chance of buying extra).

Eventually I decided on this:

The pattern is called “Pink Mimosa”, but since the yarn I’m using is purple and ‘Pink Mimosa’ just sounds like some sort of wierd sexy lingerie line to me, I’m calling this one “Violet Femme”.

I’m doing two crazy things with this pattern.

1) The specified yarn is a cotton/linen blend. I’m using a lambswool/angora/cashmere blend. Usually substituting different fibres is a bad idea, but the pattern is a pretty basic shape. And the swatch was right on gauge.

2) The pattern calls for about twice the weight of yarn than I have. Cotton/linen is usually a lot heavier than lambswool/angora/cashmere, and the cakes I wound up certainly feel and look like enough. But to make sure, I’m reversing the pattern, knitting it top down. In the round.

Like I said, I was in the mood for something a bit more challenging.

2 thoughts on “KFYS Update and Knitting Upside-down

  1. Woo hoo for knitting from stash!
    I have to get rid of a lot of mine.
    So you ended up withe the knitting machine! I have to come visit – haven’t for ages. Might go to the guild tomorrow – interested?

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