Oh Boy! I seem to have blinked and it’s been over a month since my last blog post – Sorry readers – I’ve been bad and neglected you 🙄

First I was busy with work – but in a good way. Learning new stuff, meeting new people but under some tough deadlines, doing long days and having to stay away from home.

Then we had a week off work.

The plan was to revamp the “DIY dungeon”, otherwise known as the Utility Room and celebrate my birthday. We got about half the work done then we both got hit with a really nasty tummy bug. I will spare you the detail but suffice it to say, neither of us ate or retained proper food for a week.  😯

(I’ll tell you more about the DIY dungeon in another post -but you can have a sneak preview in the pictures…)

Though all of this woe,  I did get some knitting done and do a have a finished object to show you!

Do you remember Catrin? I blogged about her here then found she was too hard for for a stressed out , “post house move knitter” so she was put aside in favour of Ronnie (who was supposed to be easy!)

So, to remind you Catrin is from Rowan Classic  Heartland

and looks like this in the book

From Catrin

I really don’t know why I put this project aside? Maybe I was just ready for a more challenging knit when I came back to it?  I really enjoyed Catrin when I picked her up again – much more than the accursed Ronnie!

I was, however,  shocked to see that I started Catrin just before I moved in October- time is flying 😕

So wanna see it?

Here she is – a month’s hard labour!!

From Catrin

And one with me grinning at you…

From Catrin

I like this pattern as the cables are on the back as well as the front – I find in very boring to have to knit plain sleeves and back with all the interest going on on the front.

Here’s the back – just to prove it…

From Catrin

And the sleeves are pretty cabley too…

From Catrin

The cables are complex but once the pattern is going, I can see what comes next fairly easily. I do have to check with the pattern still but it’s a quick glance to check rather than a slavish following of every twist.

Sizing is curious – as the is from Rowan’s Classic range I decided to knit a 32″ size. I normally knit Rowan pattern, from their main books, in a 34″ but  I keep on finding that the Classic series comes up too big for me. I think you’ll agree this is a good fit – I certainly wouldn’t want it any larger. I did ask  a senior Rowan design person at one of the shows if the sizing was different between the main books and Classic but he said they were identical. That’s not my experience so be aware if you’re deciding between sizes.

I must say, I found the Rowan Silky Tweed a dream to knit with it’s a lovely yarn and highlights the cables really well. It’s 80% lambswool and 20% silk.

I love the unrefined texture of lambs wool but I know a lot of knitters find it rough (memories of Grandma knitted, wonky sleeve length, itchy, school V-neck sweaters immediately surface!) The 20% silk in the Silky Tweed softens the yarn beautifully and gets rid of any trace of that typical woolly scratch. The wool makes it incredibly warm and light too.

I will definitely be looking out for Silky Tweed in the sales!