Other Plans

The title of this post comes from the saying: Life is what happens while you are making other plans.  This is what has happened to me recently – I had intended to get so much knitted last week.  I had started the Noro Kureyon jumper and it was going well.  The back was knitted and then somehow I wasn’t concentrating very well when I cast on the front and it ended up 6 stitches wider.  I decided that the best way to fix this was accept I had made a mistake and unravel it immediately.  I then made sure I cast on the right number of stitches.

The problem could have been worse because at least with too many stitches I now had more yarn than I needed – if I hadn’t done enough stitches that would have been a worse problem as I would have had a struggle getting the colours to match and would run out of yarn in the middle of a row.

At this moment I have almost finished reknitting the front of the jumper.  I am hoping that the sleeves will not be too difficult but I want to make them longer and I will probably knit them both at the same time – so they end up the same.  I think I will knit them according to the pattern for the smallest size – I am knitting the body of the medium size and then make them longer afterwards.  I will do more stripes and then possibly add a cuff.

I had some great news on Friday – Oxford Yarn Store I are going to stock Kureyon again.  This could be expensive for me but I do love it.  I had forgotten how much until I started knitting the Noro Kureyon jumper.  

Whilst knitting, I have been thinking about a shawl I would like to knit and have sorted out some Kureyon to use.  I wanted it to be colourful but to include black – so it will go with my black hats.

The following ball is a more accurate colour - the light was funny when I was taking photos and it was hard not to get the yarn looking too orange.

I hope my next post will include at least one finished project – maybe the jumper - but you never know if the shawl goes well I may manage that too.

Noro Kureyon Jumper

This jumper is definitely ideal to knit at this time of the year.  The colours replicate those that I see on the trees outside.

Since I bought the background yarn last Friday I seem to have made a lot of progress.  The pattern is fairly easy and progress is rapid.  I have finished the back and am now working on the front.

I am trying to make the back and the front as similar as possible – which means that I use bits of several different balls of Kureyon.  I think there will be leftovers!  

The pattern is from the Noro Kureyon 30^th Anniversary Collection and it is called Wicker Lace Pullover by Yoko Hatta.  It is supposed to be oversized.  I am not sure that it is very big.  I have chosen to knit a medium size and I normally knit loosely – so it should be at least the measurements given, but it is smaller.  I don’t mind that as it is still quite wide – much wider than the jumper I am measuring it against.  I may make some changes -  I may make the sleeves longer.  In the pattern they are fairly short.  This is typical of me – I can’t leave a pattern alone - I change things as I go along.

But is it Art?

The title for this post comes from the name of a shop in Reading which I used to visit when I was a student in the 1980s but was still trading the last time I was there.  It sums up the thoughts I have been having about knitting this week.  I think some knitting should be considered to be art.

Last weekend I finally cast off the simple shawl that I had been knitting.  In the end I did not go back to the original pattern – I just did 4 rows of garter stitch and cast off.  I am very happy with the end result and have been wearing it today.

This morning I delivered my World War 1 Memorial quilt to Oxford Yarn Store.  It will be on display there shortly and can be seen until the end of November.  I expect I will visit it a few times but I will officially be there on Armistice weekend – on Saturday 10 November.

As I knew I was going to be visiting the yarn store I had thought about what I am going to knit next and what extra yarn I might need.    While I was clearing out – I found several balls of Noro Kureyon in autumnal shades.   It is officially called Shade 263.   I thought I would use it to knit a jumper from the Noro book – 30^th Anniversary Collection.  

I needed a main colour to go with the Kureyon and I decided to go for West Yorkshire Spinners Chunky Roving Re: treat in a light brown shade.  I did give some consideration to using blue so the jumper would go with my jeans or some whacky colour like mauve for a major contrast – but I decided on an unexciting colour to show off the Kureyon.  

It is interesting that although Kureyon is supposed to be Aran weight yarn – I have chosen a chunky yarn to go with it and in fact the chunky is actually thinner.  Something I have learned from many years of knitting – is that it is a good thing to be flexible. 

I am definitely going to cast on this jumper later on today.  I know I said I was going to make a bag – and I have got the yarn out and roughed out a pattern – but I want to think about it a bit more before I start on that.  Maybe next week…