It’s knitting season

Roll on snow - I want to wear this lovely cowl. — Roll on snow – I want to wear this lovely cowl.

It’s a while since I’ve posted a knitting blog – and not for the reason you are thinking.

Here in the northern hemisphere, summer is gone and WINTER IS COMING – cue portentous music (thank you George R R Martin).

I didn’t stop knitting in summer. I knitted my heart out – and made not one but two projects which… I hated.

One of the great things about any creative project is … if it doesn’t work out you can have another go. Unravel the knitting, edit the story, paint over a canvas. And that’s what I did.

There was nothing wrong with the yarn. Or even the ideas. I just hadn’t managed to get it quite right.

I discovered it takes about an hour and a half to unravel and re-wind the yarn from about three months of knitting.

That done, I set about two new projects… One of the yarns I instantly reknitted… and I now have a lovely cowl made of wool bought in Nundle, one of Australia’s oldest sheep and wool producing regions.

The cowl is simple moss stitch knitted in the round. It worked perfectly with the chunky Nundle yarn

The other yarn I set aside. I need to think about that. Instead I started working with some wool purchased on a trip to Wales… and came up with a lovely, snuggly warm cropped cardi knitted in Rowen Cocoon.

I love the way the rib sits at the back.

The horizontal and vertical rib works so well together.

I have a rule. I can’t start something new until I finish something AND put it into use. I plan to wear this black cardi to a meeting this week. Thus, I am allowed to start something new.

I've had this lovely pin for ages - and it works perfectly here. — I’ve had this lovely pin for ages – and it works perfectly here.

So – over the next couple of days I will be diggng through my huge stash of patterns. And my even bigger stash of yarn looking for the next project… that’s almost (but not quite) as exciting as starting a new book.

I’ll let you know how I go.