Swatching

I have to admit I fell seriously off the yarn diet wagon on my recent trip to Shetland.  The Jamieson’s of Shetland shop, with its amazing wall of colour was just too much for me – I’m sure I dribbled over the Spindrift.

So I now have over 30 balls to add to my stash.  In my defence they are 25g balls! I have been planning to knit Many Fair Isles by Bodicea Binnerts which is a wonderful melange of different Fair Isle patterns in one garment.  Designed in just two colours it is a real graphic mash up, so I ‘invested’ in the yarn on my trip.

But then a wonderful new book called Alter Knit Stitch Dictionary by Andrea Rangel arrived on my desk.  To be honest I had forgotten I had preordered it from Amazon but it was a lovely surprise.  This book is a feast for any Fair Isle knitter with 200 really interesting and definitely non-traditional patterns. As you know I love graphical motifs, having incorporated weaving and embroidery designs in to hats for my DH, and this book is like knitter’s porn for me.

As you can see from my swatch I have been playing with some of the patterns and, NEWSFLASH, I am about to create my own cardigan.  I can’t quite believe I have just typed that.  It won’t appear on Ravelry, it is just for me.  Partly because it will probably take me 10 years to finish, but also because I am going to have to use an existing pattern as a template for the shape of the garment and I don’t want to rip any designer off.

But it does mark a rather radical step forward in my design journey, so, if it goes well who knows where it will lead me.