I had a nice productive knitting weekend planned – M. le Fiance went to D.C. to hang out with M. le Pere du Fiance (gosh, French looks lame without the accents. Serendipity Guys, can’t you get on that?), so I thought I’d have lots of time to dash off the fourth repetition of the wedding stole and maybe catch up on some of my neglected projects in the bargain.
But my dear friend Kate came to town for her bachelorette party, and I volunteered to puppy-sit while she was here. So I spent the weekend with Mochi, twenty-five pounds and thirteen weeks of wriggly baby Golden Doodle. For those of you not fluent in designer dog speak, that’s half Golden Retriever and half Poodle. She couldn’t be sweeter, but she was good for my resolve not to get a dog while I live in New York City. I think I made more trips to the park in one day than I have in the past month. And I learned right away that she needed to be carried down the four flights of stairs – too much jouncing is not good on the puppy bladder! The long and short of it is that I had a good time with the dog and at the bachelorette party, but I didn’t get as much knitting done as I thought I would.
I did finish the left front piece of Lightning, and I went ahead and attached it to the back piece using three-needle bind-off. The Rowan Plaid is so bulky that I split out one of the three strands and used that for seaming. I was happy with the resulting small seam – the pattern suggests back stitch or mattress stitch, but I think either one would produce a pretty chunky seam. I’m not totally satisfied with the way the pattern lines up front to back. If the right front piece comes out looking better, I may undo some of today’s work and try to fix it, but it will be mostly covered by the collar anyway.
I also pulled out poor neglected Charlotte, and I decided that what was holding me back there was the long metal straight needles I’d been using. I just don’t like the extra weight and unwieldiness they create. I realized my #8 Addi circs were free, so I whipped out those little miracles and in no time I’d finished the waist shaping for the front. There’s a lesson here, friends – everything is better with Addis! I have to say I do love the Yorkshire Tweed wool, and I don’t even mind picking bits of organic matter out of it. It’s a very earthy yarn, and it reminds me of home – the fields of sheep in the valley, the spring lambs gamboling, the livestock barns and the sheep-to-shawl competition at the County Fair, and the Lopez sheepdog trials in the summer. I’m beginning to scout for sales on the Yorkshire Tweed Chunky. If Adam is very good, he just might get a sweater out of it in time for his birthday this year. Don’t worry – his birthday isn’t until November, and we’ll already be hitched by then, so the Curse of the Love Sweater will be negated.
I’ve also started thinking about that green Plassard (Galler) Flore I bought to make a capelet. I’ve been dying to try the moire pattern that looks like herringbone, and I’m doodling pictures of a capelet with moire shoulder panels and a zig-zaggy irregular vine pattern on the front and back. It’s early stages, and don’t hold your breath because the wedding stole has to come first, but I think I might be about to design something. Of course, the Flore may be too fuzzy to show any kind of pattern – only swatching will tell. And like I said, don’t hold your breath.