November 2016 - Woollen WildernessWoollen Wilderness

I’m back! I’ve done something way out of my comfort zone on this trip, I don’t know if you can relate to this at all, but the prospect was quite scary to me. I’ve had horror scenarios going through my head, but I gambled and the gamble paid off. I took the risk of taking my knitting onto the plane!!!! I was so sure airport security would snap the needles in front of my eyes but they didn’t, and I managed to get it through the hand luggage check 5(!!!) times! As a result, there’s now a finished pair of socks to show for it.

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In other exciting news, after waiting for 3 months my new couch arrived. So happy with the colours I needed to capture it in the FO pics. Iva isn’t all that thrilled with my knitting (as usual) but seem pretty comfy on the couch.

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The pattern is Hermione’s everyday socks and the yarn is Manos del Uruguay Alegria (colourway Macachines). I love the pooling of the yarn <3

I did have an amazing time in both San Diego and New York, I can’t believe how incredibly lucky I was with the weather. It was so warm in San Diego that the seals felt comfortable enough to give a yoga show, and central park was full of the most beautiful colours in the autumn sun. I couldn’t have asked for more.

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Now first thing on the agenda after my return is an effort to save the Safran cardigan from a future in the rubbish bin. Wish me luck and hopefully I’ll be able to bring some good news about it in the next few days.

teddy1 Let’s start with the happy news, shall we? I finished the Teddy Sweater in no time and it’s soooo adorable! It was such a lovely thing to knit, partly because of the pattern (well written, easy to follow, enough variation to keep things interesting) and partly because of the yarn (Malabrigo Arroyo is so lovely, I’ll definitely be using it again). I don’t even think I have much more to say about this FO, because I think these picture do pretty much all the talking. Cute, soft, fast, perfect. teddy2

Now let’s look at the opposite of this, the Safran cardigan I’m working on. It’s a teeny tiny baby cardigan but it’s already 1 month past cast-on now. I do have a lot of love for the project, but the colourwork was fidgety, the tiny sleeves with colourwork were fidgety squared. And in the end I was avoiding the project because I was avoiding my first ever steek, with good reason apparently.

See, when making decisions for this project I wanted to do it all, cute pattern, wearable cardigan, soft yarn, machine washable yarn, and because it was such a small project I wanted to try a new technique. Of course all of this is feasible but the most deadly mistake I made here; using superwash yarn, which I chose for many of the above reason.
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When securing the stitches for the steek with a crochet method I was so relieved at how easy it was. When cutting the steek I was so relieved how easy it was. When noticing the first stitches slipping out of their secured position, well.. let’s just say the neighbours heard a lot of swearing that evening. safran_steeked2

I steeked, I failed. The yarn is too slippery and simply will not hold. The stupid thing is I KNEW not to use slippery yarn, I did actually do my homework. But along the way factoring everything in I forgot I guess.

safran_steeked3 The good news? First of all the colourwork looks pretty neat on the inside doesn’t it? The fabric is actually really lovely after washing. Also, I think this might be salveagable. The current plan is to carefully bring the cardigan to my grandmother and have her machine sew over the edges a couple of gazzilion times. It won’t look nearly as neat finished as the pretty yellow crochet version I was going for, but I think it might actually hold (fingers crossed). As I’m leaving for the States tomorrow morning though it’ll have to wait until I’m back from my trip. I stored it away safely, so as long as the elves don’t stop by at night and start pulling it it should be fine.