project fog...

I may have mentioned that I’ve been in a knitting funk - I can’t decide what I want to make. I’d think of something, get semi-excited about it, go and look at my yarns and then it would fall flat. I put groups of yarns in the middle of the living room floor and studied them from different angles but, nothing! I started watching ‘Mad Men’ but it wasn’t really grabbing my full attention. I putzed around, made those pockets, fixing up ‘Omega’, made a Man Friend Hoodie for my baby brother and sure, I did things, but it was all on auto-pilot. I was still dreaming of my next knitted vision.
I finally went to my closet and began to drag out some of my all-time favourite pieces, trying them on and examining techniques to see if I could get inspired. I discovered that I particularly like lace (major surprise! ;-)) and I like that longer length A-line, like ‘Geezer Chic’ (#50), ‘Tumbleweed’ (#53) and ‘Lacy in Red’ (#40). My hairstyle plays a big part of what I currently like – I have this habit of growing it out, to shoulder length or slightly longer and then chopping it off, seriously regretting that and then growing it out again – it sounds quick but not really. Anyway, right now I have the chopped, very short version and with this, I prefer collared garments - the neckline is much more important than when I have longer hair. Go figure – it’s taken me a lifetime to come up with this!
I also made the discovery that even though I have used a lot of 4 ply wool in my knitting career and I currently have a pretty big supply of it – I really stocked up when The Knitting Gallery was clearing out their Forsell Pure New Wool – I do not have a lace garment in that yarn and in checking the Knitwords index, I see that I have only ever knit one cardigan in that yarn! It was in No 24, Spring 2003, called ‘Uptown’ back when full length cardigans were fashionable. This one, I made for Lindsay, our model, in her size and I liked it so much, I made one for myself in a denimy blue Bonita cotton, loved it and wore it quite a bit – that was one of the ones I dug out and I’m putting it back into my wardrobe rotation for spring (if it ever gets here!). It has a fabulous full needle rib shawl collar that I was extremely proud of and the hem band was a combination of circular knitting with a 1X1 look  that was the perfect weight to add swing and drape to the bottom of the cardigan.
So, I’ve made a couple of swatches, in lace, trying out some of those great double bed bands that I loved so much…more later!