I really must try and keep my blogging as fast as my knitting!

I finished off my Earth Stripe Wrap Sunday and started a new project – I’ve nearly finished it and I haven’t shown it to you yet! 😯

It is in super thick yarn so it’s not entirely surprising it’s so quick…

Its from Rowan’s Country Escapes in Rowan Country…

a design called Branwen…

I really like the effect of the crocheted embellishments!!

I took this along to my Sunday morning Guilty Knitters meet and merrily made 25cm of back on my fabulous 9mm glass needles.

“Hmmm, I’d better check my tension. These needles are heavy and slippery and have been know to make my tension a bit loose…”

I needed 10 stitches in 10cm. I had 11 stitches! 😯 I measured it 5 times. I asked Judie to measure it for me too. It stubbornly read 11 stitches to 10cm not matter how much I smoothed, patted and tugged at it – too tight! I worked out that at that tension the garment was going to come up about 10cm too small on the chest. Ouch!

I was shocked! I’ve never had to change my needle size before when using the correct yarn for the pattern! I found it hard to believe that my tension was out. I even thought it might be because of my glass needles. I quick swatch on a pair of wooden 9mm blew that idea out of the water….

…I had to accept that for the first time in my knitting career – I had to change up a needle size!

A quick change from 8mm glass and 9mm glass to 9mm glass and 10mm plastic (my 10mm glass needles are beautiful but too heavy for me to really use) and some frantic reknitting later….

…My tension was spot on!

As you can guess – 10mm needles makes this a really quick knit. It’s half sewn up already!

I’ve really fallen for the subtle colour changes and thick warm woolliness…

Trust me to discover how great this yarn is as Rowan discontinue it!

I’m looking forward to rummaging in my Felted Tweed stash to see which colours work best for the “doilies” – I feel a fun evening of crochet coming on…

I have had one strange experience with this garment though – it kept moving around the living room overnight by itself…
….after setting up surveillance cameras and poltergeist detectors, I suspect I’ve found that someone was practising for his modelling career in front of the mirror 😀