Squeal!

So I'm finally going to post Laminaria. The reason I haven't is that I wanted to get some photo's of the shawl being worn, and I just kept forgetting to get it done. So here it is at last:

And of course the knitter's perv shots:

And the details? Okay.

The pattern is Laminaria by Elizabeth Freeman from the Spring 2008 edition of Knitty (although I changed part of the pattern, which I now think was unnecessary).

The wool is Bendigo Woollen Mills 2 ply in Guava. It's 100% wool and incredibly inexpensive for what you get. I used 4mm needles because I wanted a nice open loopy lace.

So the pattern? I loved it absolutely and completely and utterly. It was an adventure for me, although of course the middle pattern which repeats 17 times did get a bit repetitive, but never dull, because each row of the pattern repeat is so different. Every type of double decrease that exists is in this baby: k3tog, sssk, sk2p and s2kp! There are subtle differences between all of them! We have turning 2 into 9 sts, 3 into 9 sts, and if you do the star pattern of the first part of the pattern, 1 into 3, 3 into 3 and 3 into 2! Having said all this, it certainly isn't difficult if you keep your wits about you. With the BWM 2 ply, the shawl has such a lovely drape and is quite elegant. Highly recommended!

I notice that Elizabeth Freeman has published another shawl pattern on Knitty, Aeolian. Looks beautiful too.

So I finished Laminaria quite a while ago now, and I haven't stopped knitting at all. I finally picked up my Sexy Guernsey again, which had been sitting 60% done in the stack for about 2 years. It's now 95% done:

Here's a detail shot of the cable and moss stitch:

This is a Frankenstein sort of a design. I love Elizabeth Zimmermann's seamless sweater with the percentage system, and have adapted it to several different patterns. My grandmother has been knitting traditional fisherman's guernseys and jerseys for many years with lovely complex patterning on the chest and upper arms. I suppose when I started this guernsey it was to give her ideas a go, except that I didn't want to do it the proper way! The proper way is to start at the bottom of the body working around and around, work up to the armpit, work the chest front and back back and forth, join at the shoulders, pick up stitches at the arm holes and knit the sleeves down from there. The result is of course a dropped sleeve, and I forgot to mention that there is an armpit gusset too. Well that's all well and good, but I just adore EZ's seamless raglan system, and I also like clothes to be fairly well fitted, so this is the result of this mish-mash. I stuck with a simple 2 by 2 cable on moss stitch background panels firstly because I wouldn't wear it if it was too busy, and secondly because there is a photo of a fellow wearing a guernsey with this pattern in Gladys Thompson's wonderful book Patterns for Guernseys, Jerseys, and Arans: Fishermen's Sweaters from the British Isles and for some reason the lovely texture of the moss stitch with the small cables really caught my eye. The idea of my particular design is that the body, 180 sts, worked plain up to just under my bust, would be about the right circumference to fit my lower torso, and the moss and cable design, which is only worked on the body over the boob area, not on the back as it is in the traditional design, would expand to fit my boobs since moss stitch creates a larger fabric per stich compared to plain knitting. Does that all make sense? Hopefully after a couple of reads!

I'm just coming up to the collar in a few more rows, then I'll graft the armpits together and away we go! I can't quite decide about the collar. I keep changing my mind between plain round collar or a square opening with a lower front. I think circular is the way to go. There are a couple more details of this particular jumper where I have tried to be a smarty pants, but I'll discuss them another time, because my brain is dissolving as I write. Just can't seem to work at the computer very long.
I have had so many ideas for knitting, all my own designs, and I can't seem to stop the ideas flowing, which is painful because I'm too busy! Next I have to make hubby's Norwegian sweater, as Winter is approaching. There won't be much in the way of design going into it, because it's modelled on a cardy he already has which his (Norwegian) great aunt knitted for his father many moons ago. It will be fun, as it will involve steeks and other such craziness, and it won't get boring because there'll always be colour patterns to keep track of, but I can't wait till that is over because I have so many exciting ideas I just want to squeal with excitement when I think about them!