sweetgeorgia

Soft Shetland, I mean Shetland Heather

Anne, the super helpful owner of [She Ewe Knits](http://www.sheeweknits.com/), was nice enough to send me a small skein of Jamieson’s Soft Shetland to try out… I love this yarn! — it seems a little scratchy and hard at first, but then I swatched it up with the Na Craga swatch pattern, washed it and blocked it. The yarn blooms a little and softens up nicely while still being substantial. Here’s my little swatch:

Now, the only thing is picking a colour! Anne says that Jamieson is coming out with new colours for ["Shetland Heather"](http://www.sheeweknits.com/shetland%20heather.htm) (the new name for Soft Shetland) in the Fall, so I might wait until then to order the yarn. In the meantime, I’m going to order some BWA yarns for myself!

New Projects

Well, the happy bride and groom left for Italy yesterday… two weeks in Italy, ahhhh…. *snap* …oh, yes, back to reality. Thanks for everybody’s beautiful and kind comments about the wedding photos!!!

It’s time for new projects. The two one-skein wonders are blocking, I’m wearing my finished Soleil, the DH’s second sock is almost done and I’m *almost* finished the lilac Paisley Lace Shawl! About 10 rounds to go — but since each round is at least 500 stitches, that will take me approximately… forever…

So! What’s in the knitting bag today? Dale Baby Ull! For the [Baby Norgi](http://knitty.com/ISSUEspring03/PATTbabynorgi.html) sweater from Knitty.com. Armed with my new 2mm and 3mm Addi’s, steeking, *here I come!*

Oh, of course, this is just practice for a steeked sweater for me. I won a copy of Alice Starmore’s Tudor Roses on Ebay and am planning to knit something out of that next — I didn’t see any fair isle projects I liked in her Celtic Collection book, although I love the cabled Cromarty sweater…

In the meantime, I’m picking yarns for St. Brigid (from Starmore’s Aran Knitting, also out of print)… Here’s the Blackwater Abbey yarn sample card I just received… I’m considering either Pink Heather or Iris, so I ordered a couple 1oz skeins to test drive:

Now that I think of it, is it *wrong* to knit a Scottish designer’s sweater in Irish yarn?

Anyway, I also finally got up the courage to start spinning the Ashland Bay merino that I bought a few weeks ago. It’s so soft and smooth to spin! I love it! I’m spinning this thin for a laceweight 2-ply that I’ll use for a shawl. Maybe another Flower Basket Shawl or maybe the Meadow Flowers Shawl from the Knitters’ Stash book:

Blue

It’s been a crappy week — too much work, too little sleep, being snarky enough with clients that they actually notice (oops). Ah, you know. Here’s the shrug I’m rushing to finish… it’s in Rowan Summer Tweed:

And here’s proof that I’m still knitting the Manly Sweater. Here’s the finished front! Two sleeves to go.

So in my search for an appropriate Scottish Heather yarn sub, I’m going to try to get my hands on a sample of Jamieson’s Soft Shetland (soon to be called Shetland Heather Aran). Anne at She Ewe Knits is sending me a sample card and some yarn for me to test drive. I found the Simply Shetland site and have been considering these colours:

Yes, that’s right. In my current obsession with Starmore and that darned “Aran Knitting” book, I’ve glommed onto the idea of knitting a St. Brigid for myself. Funny enough, I’m actually ok with this aran sweater being oversized. What I’m _not_ ok with is a huge fair isle sweater. I don’t want to put myself through [this kind of stress](http://onemorerow.blogdrive.com/archive/19.html).

Not slacking off

Yes, I’ve had my TKGA Master Knitter 1 instructions for about five or six months now… I’ve knit several sets of swatches, but in all different yarns and with all different needles. Last week, I decided enough dithering, enough horsing around — May will be the month I submit my stuff — just get it out of here! So starting last Thursday night, I restarted all 16 swatches. And here we are: two swatches to go.

I have swatch #15 and #16 left to do. Swatch 15 is a cable of your choice and I think my choice will be a ["staghorn" cable](http://swim.typepad.com/swim/staghorn_cable_cardigan/). Swatch 16 is a two-colour swatch that demonstrates how brilliantly you can join colours — at the side and mid-row. Ooh…exciting.

Originally, I wanted to submit the perfect package so that there wouldn’t be any re-submits to do. But now I figure, I’ll just get it out and see what happens. If I have to re-knit some swatches, whatever…it’s a learning process.

Swatches and questions should be done tonight! I still have the write up the blocking report too…maybe by the end of this week.

Saltspring Island and Rebecca

Since I won’t be at Maryland this weekend (boo hoo), this is as close as I will get to seeing sheep…

A group of us spent this past weekend at my friend’s parents’ custom-built house in Saltspring Island, relaxing, hot-tubbing, watching movies and knitting… Ahhhh. How would you like to wake up seeing this every morning? Well, for about a million dollars, _you can!_ Their dream house is actually up [for sale](http://www.mls.ca/PropertyDetails.aspx?vd=&SearchURL=%3fMode%3d0%26Page%3d1%26vs%3d1%26rlt%3d%26cp%3d%26pt%3d0%26mp%3d900000-0-0%26mrt%3d-1-0-0%26Beds%3d0-0%26Baths%3d0-0%26f%3d%26ft%3dall%26o%3dA%26of%3d1%26ps%3d10%26ptgid%3d1%26aid%3d90%26MapURL%3d%253fAreaID%253d750&Mode=0&PropertyID=3518284) (boo hoo too).

Of course, we did a little yarn shopping in between meals of Saltspring Island cheese, lemon bars and blackberry port:

Sunday morning, while some of the guys were off playing golf, we walked up their beachfront, tormented little crabs and tried to save already dead jellyfish.

Finally, I did finish the Rebecca Cardi after the lovely people at Weaving Works shipped me another ball of mohair:

####Rebecca 29 Wrap Cardi

* Pattern: from Rebecca 29 Magazine
* Yarn Substituted: Jo Sharp Rare Comfort Mohair x 6 balls
* Needles: US 7 / 4.5 mm Addi Turbo’s
* Changes: left off the edge finishing, picked up the ties from the front edges.
* Ok, I like the cardi — I like the yarn and the finished fabric…very soft. I don’t like that it makes me look like a football player. A good cardi for those with sloping shoulders and stick-thin arms.

Oh, and all the rest of the [Saltspring Island photos are here...](http://www.planetfishdesign.com/photos/SimpleViewer/?album=Salt_Spring_Island__May_2005)