Success and Failure

As usual, this post has been a long time in coming. The first yarn I spun on my, now nearly one-year-old, wheel, was some lovely Shetland which was a gift long ago from Helena. I spun it up quickly (for me), and decided that then was the time to try out my first own design, which was to be a little tank top, or vest, for Laurie.

On the niddy noddy!

It was to be knit in the round, with a plain stockinette back, 2x2 rib around the bottom, with a cable pattern on the front. I scanned Knitting for Dummies, which is still a constant point of reference even though I would now consider myself an experienced knitter, for some cables, and decided on a chain cable set centrally between two wave cables, to be edged with moss stitch. I began from the bottom and quickly got to the armholes, about which I was the most apprehensive, but I did some workings out (to cut a long story short) and was really happy with how they turned out.

Due to the pulling in nature of cables, I gave whatlooked like quite a lot of length to the vest, which did result in it looking slightly peculiar by the time I arrived at the armholes, but I kept inserting my arms into the bottom and stretching it out to the sides to reassure myself! The moss stitch actually became an edging in itself as I began decreasing for the armholes; I had planned to add ribbed cuffs, but considered actually leaving the moss stitch as the edging. More on this later...

So, I completed one front shoulder, moved onto the other and completed that, but the further I got, the closer I got to the end of the yarn. I moved onto the back and finished one shoulder, with about six inches left with which to complete the remaining shoulder, both cuffs and the neck - an obvious impossibility! Oh dear.

The vest in its current state.

 You may also notice that I somehow failed to cross a cable, right in the very centre of the chain cable - what excellent placement for a mistake!

So, I shall have to wait for Wonderwool so I can purchase about 10 grams of Shetland and hope I can get this finished before Laurie's grown out of it (for the uninitiated, you cannot buy fibre in 10g increments - 50g is usually the minimum!) Joking aside though, I am reasonable pleased with this as a first quick design. I have so many swirling around in my head, as well as drawings, paintings and textile projects. By the time I am actually able to produce any of them, I will have sketchbooks full of ideas and won't know where to start. Oh actually, wait, I don't have time to record all these ideas anyway, so who am I kidding? I definitely feel the need to end this post with a LOL, so please laugh with me and leave a comment.

xxx Sam