Knitting again.

 This is my first finish for:

This blog has always been about quilting which isn't surprising when you consider the name. One or two side steps into embroidery have occurred, but then in relation to crazy quilting. There we go again ... quilting!

But this post is about knitting. Now I'm knitting again. I stopped about six years ago when the cardigan I was knitting showed signs of being too wide in the shoulders and too tight in the waist! That really is a downer and garment knitting was clearly no longer for me! Then carpal tunnel syndrome made knitting impossible.

I do, however have a lot of wool left over from projects long since worn out and was thrilled to see a pattern offered through Ravelry on Instagram. Never one for an endless row of knitted tea-cosies, odd socks, multi-coloured scarves etc. I was immediately struck by the Memory Keeper's Shawl designed by @linaknits.

Although I've been knitting on and off for more than sixty years, there were several "new to me" things about this pattern.

Firstly it's knitted throughout with two yarns simultaneously: a neutral which is constant throughout, and lots of scraps of varying colours, but of the same thickness - in my case, more or less, as most of the balls had lost their labels! The neutral yarn (I used a light grey) gives more subtle colouring while using up scraps.

Second "new to me" was knitting on a circular needle.

It's not knitted in the round, just backwards and forwards like on conventional needles. But with some 360 stitches in the last row the mind boggles at what would happen at the end of the row with all the stitches on the same needle. After some unfruitful local searching I finally bought a 120cm long circular needle online. 120cm seems to be the longest there is, although this one can be extended by adding other sections of cable. As it was 120 cm was more than long enough.

Thirdly, I'd never heard of an i-cord before.

And now I've knitted one! It forms a more stable edge to the piece, and especially the cast-off i-cord gives a stable yet flexible finish. It can be seen in the photo above; the three stitches on the right hand needle get slipped back onto the left and then knitted again: K2, K2tog, thus taking up the next stitch from the left hand needle. It took ages to cast off 360-odd stitches that way but I'm really satisfied with the result.

One last photo! Today's bright sunshine and shadows are making the colours look rather pale. The first photo (draped over the bamboo) is a better representation of reality.

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Happy sewing, and knitting

Marly.