Originally posted December 29, 2006
I have finally finished “Skippy” – so named because he’s the colour of peanut butter and a “jumper” – a basic pullover. I ‘ll not bore you with the number of times I knit the end of the sleeves – from mid-forearm down – too short, too tight, too short still…it went on and on; but it fits! The neckline is garter stitch because I didn’t start it early enough and therefore had no room for a ribbed finish. Knitting by the seat of your pants may free you from patterns; but not, human error.
Anyway I have decided that one of my New Year’s resolutions is – don’t worry it has nothing to do with physical exercise – I am committed; but I’m not mad!!! – to bring a little – OK a lot – of discipline to my knitting. Please feel free to knit along with me, if you like. Here’s what I plan to do.
The book “Knitting in the Old Way” has been calling to me, so I decided to try to improve my knitting skills by knitting a few things (I am starting with a manageable goal) from it. I am also starting at the beginning with the Danish blouse. I have read the opening chapters of the book already – lots of things I didn’t know were in there!! and I have done some web research on the Danish Nattrojer.
As a result of my research, I have found that several other people have knit the blouse as well and written about it on their blogs. I can hear mother now, “You’re not the first and won’t be the last.”
Here’s the first, if you’re are interested:
http://cassiana.typepad.com/too_much_wool/2005/02/index.html
and the second:
http://www.madrone.com/Knitting/brocade.html
and there was lots of raving about the blouse by Beth Brown-Reinsel in Interweave Knits – Winter 2004.
The challenge here will be to stay true to the basics of the blouse but to add or change something to personalize it. After much thought, I have decided to use White DK Zephyr, which we have in stock now and to do the cropped version. I was going to use the patterns given in the book; but after some swatches – Oh yeah – those things – I have decided to keep it really simple and do a series of diamond seed stitch patterns to echo the seed stitch in the border and hope it works.
This brings me to another area of thought for 2007 – personalized knitting. I hope to post pictures of knitted samples from our patterns – we have over 1,000 which have been knit and personalized in some way by “you, the knitter.” Please send me pictures!!! I love the way patterns change with each knitter adding something of themselves to the project!!
Well that should just about do it!! Notice I did not decide to work on more interesting meals, a cleaner house, better behaved children or a more organized office. No, 2007 will be all about – having fun!!!
Enjoy
Carol