I’m not quite ready to abandon the gardening aspect of my blog for the year, because I have an update! I spent a tranquil hour at Jasmin yesterday, wandering between the aisles of plants, vacillating between hydrangea cultivars (if that’s the word I want). I was drawn towards one called hydrangea paniculata Fire light because of its gorgeous pink and white blooms. It was unfortunate that I was shopping when some of the plants were past their best bloom times, so perhaps it wasn’t a fair competition. I definitely chose with my heart and not with my head. I hope I made a good choice, although I’m a little nervous about the lack of morning sun in the back corner of our backyard where I planted it. The tag says it’ll be okay in part shade, so I’m hoping for the best. With the help of my husband’s strong arm and hole-digging prowess, I was able to plant it in no time yesterday afternoon. I also picked up a couple of heucheras with verigated purple leaves to add to that bed and I transplanted two small hostas (green and white verigated leaves) from my lilac bed. They were not doing very well where they were because of the local competition, so they’ll get a little breathing space in the new bed I’ve created. It’s a gas to have a flowerbed without a ton of weeds in it! In fact, with very little in it at all. It’s like a new canvas, ready to receive the first daubs of paint. I’ve added the first daubs, but it’s still looking a little spare. I’m planning to put in a couple of divisions of the grass plants that are spotted around the yard, and possibly one or two more hostas. The ones in the front could use dividing already. To be determined! I feel so much better having got this plan past the imaginary phase, even though there are still some steps to go. Today is rainy, so I’m off the hook. I can write and knit and keep planning.
Knitting update-yokes!
As soon as I finished the Cathedral Grove cardigan, as mentioned and featured in my last post, I cast on the Birkin by Caitlin Hunter. I love the yarn, Brooklyn Tweed Loft, in the Old World colourway, a dark navy blue with specks of red. I’ve been warned that this yarn breaks easily, but I haven’t had any trouble with it, except when I yanked at it without realizing it was caught on something. Yes, it broke, but luckily, it’s easy to spit-splice! (If you’re wondering what on earth that means, click on the word and it’ll take you to the wonderful Youtube channel, Very Pink Knits, and she’ll explain it.). I’m also using Loft in a light grey colourway, and Julie Asselin Fino in Raspberry, plus Sweet Paprika in a lovely forest green. I need one more colourway, but I haven’t chosen it yet.
I am in the middle of the colourwork yoke section of the sweater and it’s challenging! I am not very experienced at doing intricate stranding and this pattern requires holding three strands at the same time, often catching the floats. Some of the rows are particularly maddening, and I end up with some very tangled strands. I don’t have a system that works all the time, unfortunately. I need to work on figuring out when to bring the yarn over and when under, to avoid tangling. I just barrel on and periodically untwist the balls.
I have a bit of an issue with this pattern and I’m not alone from what I’ve read on the Ravelry project pages. The yoke has very few increase rows, which means that there’s a great risk of the garment being too tight across the shoulders. I got about two inches down the yoke before I realized that it was not going to fit across mine. I’m getting ahead of myself, though. I’d better explain what I did from the get-go.
I had originally cast on for the Large and soon realized that with the gauge I was getting (24 stitches to 4 inches instead of 26) I was going to be floating in it. The neck seemed okay, so I just increased to the M stitch count instead of the L after the leaf section of the colourwork. No problem, except after the next two inches of stranding, I was getting a gauge of between 28-30 stitches to 4 inches! Yikes! I decided it was worth ripping back because a) it weren’t gonna fit nohow and b) it was uneven and ugly. So, rip-it, rip-it, rip-it, I went frogging away, untangling three skeins as I went. Fun, fun,fun!
Now I’m back up to the L stitch count and I went up to a 4 mm needle from 3.5, just to be on the safe side. If this doesn’t work, I don’t know what I’ll do. My shoulders are broad, though…. on the plus side, it’s a bit neater and looser and I’m almost back to where I was before I frogged. Yay!
So, that’s the news to date. I was thinking of podcasting today, but the light is dull because of the rain, so maybe tomorrow.
I’m using my iPad to post on my WordPress site and I’m remembering why I got out of the habit of posting in the first place. The IPad is not so user friendly with WordPress, or vice versa. I miss my old, slow dinosaur of a computer, but it would be hopeless to go back to it. Soon, I’ll be inheriting Dave’s computer because he’s getting a new one. I’m hoping that will help me get back into it. I miss posting frequently!
Happy knitting and gardening! Here’s another taste of my daughter’s album in the form of another song she wrote and recorded. It’s called If Only. Enjoy!
I love to hear from you!