Knitting for Haiti.

As lots of you probably know by now, Ravelry has set up a great new feature wherein designers can mark patterns of theirs from which proceeds go to helping out those in Haiti who have been affected by the earthquake. It's so great that everyone has been helping out in any way they can. I recently found out my dad will be going over there to help out with medical care, so now the situation is that much closer to my heart. Cheers to Ravelry and all those generous designers who are helping us to contribute!

I took advantage of this great feature by buying a pattern that I have been meaning to do for a while anyway - it's amazing: you can filter patterns for the ones that will contribute to Haiti, and then filter further by ones that you've faved or that are in your queue- genius!

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Listening to: Phoenix

Eating: Spinach & Cheese Strata

Fair...? Isle

How "fair" it is remains to be seen. This is my first big fair isle project, and I am doing it from a vintage pattern from the amazing resource The Retro Knitting Company. So that means first big fair isle project and my first vintage pattern. Yikes!

The pattern only comes in one size, but luckily the person I'm making it for has a very "vintage" figure - meaning very slim. The other tricky thing is that the pattern calls for a yarn that no longer exists, in a 3-ply, which isn't so common anymore. I was lucky to come across the Jamieson & Smith range of yarns made from Shetland wool. Their website says that their 2-ply works for vintage patterns that call for 3-ply, and they have an amazing range of colours, so I went for it.

Before and after steam blocking.

My tension was great at first, but surprisingly in order to increase the width of the sweater, rather than increasing the number of stitches, it calls for an increase in needle size. Unsurprisingly, this messed with my previously beautiful tension. While completing the front (which is all I have done so far) I was pretty worried things were not going to turn out well at all. Ravelry research revealed that the puckering and other tension problems are normally worked out in the blocking, which gave me hope. So far I have only done a steam block, which has corrected it a lot, but I am still not completely satisfied. Perhaps if I do a full wet block things will perk up. Fingers crossed! I had better figure all this out before I knit on...

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Listening to: Bon Iver, again.

Eating: Pizzoccheri

Happy 2010...

...to me! Because I just finished the Minimalist Cardigan - using the most gorgeous yarn gifted to me by a very lovely person. It just happens to be in my favourite colour ever - they call it "Dark Amethyst" - and is made up of a delicious mix of baby alpaca, cashmere, camel, and silk. Yum!

(Look at ALL that moss stitch!)

But seriously Happy 2010 to ya'll too. It's been a snowy one up here in the northern hemisphere, but that just means more mugs of hot chocolate for me, so so far, so good.