Saturday I'd bought the newest issue of "Simple Knitting" and found a summer top in there I really wanted to try. It seemed easy and looked cute, so a perfect challange. Unfortunately I didn't find it until after 2pm on Saturday, so the yarn shop was closed and wouldn't open again until Tuesday (Whit Monday is a holiday here), so I had to find something else to start on in the meanwhile. Thankfully I had an ooooooold kit I'd bought ages ago (thanks to
Yesterday I made it to the yarn shop after work, and got the necessary yarn for the summer top. Boy, was it ever hard to choose! I find it even harder to chose colours for things I knit than when shopping for clothes, because I can't try it on first and see if the colour works on me... ah well, like the cashier said, if I like the pattern, I can always come back and make it in more colours ;)
I'm not entirely sure about the yarn either... the pattern called for Baby Alpaca which they didn't have in the correct weight/length ratio, so I found something else instead where both the weight/length and the gauge fit, but I don't know how much that actually matters? If the gauge is right, does it matter that the weight/length ratio is different? *is confused*.
Ah well, at least I'm learning :) I got started last night (after knitting no less than THREE swatches as my tension apparently is way off), but as the photo proves, haven't gotten very far at all.
Since the top is knitted in the round, I had to cast on 240 stitches to begin with! THAT took forever, although fortunately I thought to place markers for every 40 so I didn't have to double-check my counting all the time (past experience does count for something finally ;) ). I managed to get rather paranoid about connecting correctly though, as they kept going on about not twisting stitches and how the only way to solve it if you had was to start all over again :-/ I think I ended up double-checking 5 or 6 times, before I trusted I'd gotten it right. You'd know after having knitted two rounds, right?
I know it's not much to look at yet, but I can't wait to see it grow :) I might need a larger circular needle though, but I've never seen them larger than 80cm in shops here. Ah well, there's always online.
Both of these WIPs are rather large projects though, so unless I decide to cast something on in the meantime, it'll probably be awhile before I'll have something to show for a FO post again ;)
I always ask in the store how much yarn a will probabely use. Then I knit quickly because they might have more yarn if I bought too little. Or I buy too much and can bring it back. That's the advantage of buying in a store. I wish you luck with your top.
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