Firstly I must say thank you for all the wonderful message of support and sympathy on my last post about poor Thug. You have no idea how much you all helped me. Huge hugs to all you guys 😀
So. How has the knitting faired through all the upset?
Unfortunately, I really wasn’t in the mood to apply myself to fiddly finishing of Lilliana – my fluffy Kidsilk Aura creation. She has lain in the corner, forlorn and abandoned…
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| From Green Cashmere |
I’ll get back to Lilliana at some point…. 😉
What I really needed was some indulgent, lovely, treat of a knitting project…..Hmmmm….Wasn’t in the mood to go buy anything (yep, I felt that bad!)….should be trying to keep to my new year’s resolution of knitting up my “snaffled in the sales” yarn…
Mewsley came up with the perfect suggestion, as she nosed a box of yarn towards me…..Cashmere based grief counselling!
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| From Green Cashmere |
It was a good idea. The Rowan Cashmere is fabulously soft and I adore that shade of green. It’s labelled as a Double Knitting but it is on the very fine side of DK. What pattern? Fortunately I have just the thing.
I’m going to remake my favourite French Cable Jumper that I blogged here.
This is the pattern from Bergere De France ….
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| From Green Cashmere |
And me wearing my first incarnation of this pattern from Donkey’s years ago (where I appear to be over thrusting my chest?!!)…
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So back to the here and now…
I suspected the Cashmere would be thinner than the Bergere De France Berlaine that I knit the original in so I did a swatch….Very unusual for me! The swatch seemed OK, measured the right gauge…
I curled up on the sofa, cast on an knit furiously trying to ignore the lack of a ginger cat to help me. I was thoroughly enjoying the Cashmere and the pattern was difficult enough to distract me and keep me absorbed – all good huh?
Unfortunately, it came up a bit small! The bloody swatch lied to me!!
Mewsley tried to hide the evidence from me but there was too much knitting for her to obscure….
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| From Green Cashmere |
Nothing for it but the cast on again on bigger needles – 3.75mm this time, rather than 3.50 called for in the pattern. Was I upset? Strangely no. I usually hate re-knitting but this time all I wanted was to sit and concentrate on knitting to stop me thinking about Thug – I didn’t mind what I knitted.
Quite a bit of Cashmere based therapy later, I am this far (the one on the right)…
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| From Green Cashmere |
Doesn’t look much different huh? Believe me – under the tape measure it is.
Wanna see a close up of those lovely cables? Course you do….
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| From Green Cashmere |
In case you’re wondering – there are three different cable patterns – each one has a different row repeat too making it a challenge to keep track of. How do I cope?
With a notebook and my trusty highlighters of course…
You can laugh at my tatty scrap of paper if you like but this is my key to getting this one right – the pink rows are the centre cable, the green is the little barley twists and the yellow is the chain done over 6 rows.
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| From Green Cashmere |
All I need now is to find more knitting time!
That jumper is gonna look gorgeous… that green is beautiful! Can’t wait to see the end result 🙂
Sorry to hear about your beloved cat Thug, he sounded like a great kitty 🙂
That is a lovely pattern. Mewsley is very sensible with appropriate counselling. I use the KnitCounter app for complex repeats like that. I know I would get lost with paper. You are better at complex counting than I am.
What a lovely project to choose – good old Mewsley came up trumps! There is something extremely satisfying abotu knitting cables I always feel. Your looks great!
PS Are you going to KnitNation this summer?
very pretty colour! For a very sophisticated knit. Look forward to seeing it finished.
Its good to see you back blogging again and knitting such a lovely jumper. I was only thinking this morning that I hadn’t seen anything from you for a while but I could understand why you’ve been absent.
That green is gorgeous and the pattern must be a real challenge. Love the idea of using highlighters to sort out the different patterns – I usually use symbols but highlighters seems a much easier solution.
Take care
x Tricia
So glad you’re back and knitting again – it’s the best therapy of all – and Mewsley is obviously doing a great job of supervising your efforts! Love the colour of the cashmere – it must feel wonderful to work with! Good luck with it – can’t wait to see the finished result …
Jools x
I like the idea of cashmere therapy, maybe that one needs passing on to the NHS!
Hi I haven’t checked your blog for a while but was upset to hear your bad news. Being an owner of cats myself in the past both lived to 20 and 21 I know exactly how you feel. I have decided not to have any more although I love them as I find it too upsetting when they go so now I just borrow the neighbours cats to stroke and talk too lol. You knitting looks lovely and cable knitting does keep you mind off other things. When I saw you list it did make me laugh as it reminds me of a baby all in one I’m knitting at the moment. I have a little book for marking rows as it has 3 cables rows that are repeated several times so after every row I have to note down which row on which cable I’m on as each pattern cable is a different number of rows. As they say it keeps your mind off things and I need to at the moment as in the last week my dryer packed up as did the washing machine a few days later and now I have a cracked drain lol. So now hoping to win the lottery!! Keep knitting.