I love chunky knitting!!

My problem, when it comes to hobbies, is I never seem to finish anything through the natural process of Start-Finish. My process is Start-distraction-somethingelse-lostit-founditagain-distraction-somemoredone-anotherdistraction...etc.-[then, months after a normal person with dedication and vision would have needed]-Finish. Hence... I've started working on something else. Yes, I still have two scarves (which couldn't be easier to finish!) and a dress to finish, but as if I'd get to them right now! I think my problem may stem from the fact that, usually, what I make isn't exactly a masterpiece, so it tends to be the process I enjoy more than the admiration (by myself and others) of the completed piece; it's hard to look forward to lacklustre acknowledgments.

Anyway, an observation from Phildar: it doesn't matter how sexy (and probably French-sexy) the guy is, if you put him in a chunky knit sweater, he'll always look like he's being smothered by an over-loving grandmother's Christmas present, and not 'cool'. Never, ever 'cool'*:

[From Phildar - Autumn no. 3]

Anyway, it was the combination of flipping through the Phildar books for the umpteenth time and searching my wool box for some embroidery scraps for the dress (below) that brought me to the decision to use up some of the dark-sea-blue wool on an actual pattern. As usual, it's a selection of wool given to me because it was unwanted by its previous owner, and, as usual, this makes complete sense. The colour reminds me of the deep sea with hints of churned up sea bed and storm cloud - sounds very poetic, doesn't it? Then you try and knit with it...

Well, it's a bit bobbly, but not impossible to cope with; it somehow knits very thick, despite not appearing to be a thickly twisted yarn, which means you cannot see patterns - even loose ones! Originally I was using it to knit the scarf I'm now making in purple (see below), but it was impossible to see any differences between the garter-stitch and the loose hoops unless you held the piece up to bright light! Hence it reminds me of the deep sea - you can't see anything until you get very close - diving in, however, is not an option...

Why do yarn creators think that threading in high amounts of mohair is ever a good idea? Is there anyone in the world impervious to the effects of it? All the while you knit with this wool it's itchy, it molts everywhere, and it quite literally gets up your nose! I currently look like I own a blue cat and I'm sneezing up blue fur balls!

Still, I have a lot of it and I'm always ready to experiment/torture myself. I thought about what I'd like to make - having previously attempted the scarf, which would have been a disaster against the skin now I came to think about it, I decided against a sweater. So it's on with another cardigan - I love cardigans about as much as I love knitting, so it makes sense. I've decided on this:


It's not a great picture because my scanner's not working properly so I've had to picture the picture, but it's in the Phildar Spring No. 486 book - pattern number 16.

As usual, I'm using totally the wrong kind of wool, so I decided to echo that by using the wrong type of needles too - since I don't have any 7s at the moment, and my 6s are all tied up with the scarf. So after the practically invisible ribbing rows, using a pair of 8s, I decided to try something completely new - chunky knitting! I'm using a pair of 2s - let's face it, the wool binds so thickly, it wouldn't matter what size I use, right?

OK, so it's difficult to match the pattern requirements exactly, but I LOVE how quickly this thing is knitting itself!!

Goodness knows what it will look like when done - but since it will probably take me quite a while to get there anyway, why not try...? ;)

[*Having said that, I'm not going to kick every man out of bed for dodgy knitwear - I'm not that churlish... ;)]


Wool: Robin Reflection RF241