Holding my breath

January has been a wild month. In four weeks that were over in a flash we've had blinding snow storms with traffic-stopping accumulation, hope-inspiring 40-degree sunny days, flooding downpours complete with epilogues of bone-shattering, slip-inducing freezing rain, and bleak long days of low cloud-covered dark and cold. But today makes me think that even though the winter here lasts another 3 months, Spring may be more than a distant myth. Three months, I tell myself, I can hold on three more months...

I may have to visit friends who live in less temperamental climates.

In homage to Spring, I'm working on a Spring Nursing Shawl for a dear friend with a beautiful brand new little girl. She wanted black, in Noro, but - alas - the Noro yarn called for in this pattern didn't come in any black combinations and I was reluctant to switch to another Noro yarn that did because the lesser yardage would have meant many, many more skeins - 12 skeins instead of 3. So I don't know if, in the end, she'll even like these spring colours and use the shawl...



A risky endeavor for something that is so much work. I'm using a pattern designed by the owner of a LYS: The Easy As Pie Shawl. It is very drapey, which makes it a good nursing shawl, and also wider at the bottom than the top, so it doesn't feel like you're wearing a blanket when you wear it wrapped as a scarf around your neck. The yarn, a mix of cotton, wool and silk, makes it lightweight yet textural so it just feels good.



I considered switching to a sock yarn that was dark and black and wintery, and maybe I should. But the fact is I'm 25% done and Spring will be here soon and the black winter coat will go into the closet and she'll search for something that brings a bit of brightness and this particular colour combination of buff and tan and cream and teal will be... quite perfect.

At least I hope so. Sometimes my confidence flags, and my stitches slow, and I wonder if I should be the kind of knitter that knits what people want instead of the kind that knits my own self into what I give. Still, I can't help remembering Elizabeth Zimmerman and I knit on, with confidence and hope, through all crises. After all, if EZ knit Nether Garments for her family and they loved them to unraveled shreds, then maybe I can bring a bit of Spring colour a few months early.

a seasonal sweater

My penchant for vintage silhouettes often leads me to sweaters that have body-conscious shaping and style -"sweater girl" sweaters. One of these is the Spring Forward, Fall Back Sweater from the Thrifty Knitter, the author of Naughty Needles. I knit this design from 6 skeins of Noro Silk Garden for my sister as a Christmas present...



All during the knitting of this sweater I doubted the finished object: the neck seemed too loose, the body too narrow, the colours of the yarn I chose non-harmonious. All I can say is "trust the pattern" because none of these things were an issue in the end. The blocking helped a lot to smooth the lumps of knitting and it looked so great on her:





Modifications - I added at least 2 inches to the narrow torso part, and more to the bottom edge. I didn't use the size 9 needles on the cuff and bottom ribbing, because I didn't want these parts to pull in. I did use size 9 on the neck ribbing... The rest of the sweater uses size 10 needles. I also made the sleeves long, long, long and flared them into bell sleeves with more ribbing than the original design called for. My version took 6 skeins of Noro Silk Garden with some bits left over from each skein. I skipped one of the colours in this Noro colourway - a flat brown - because I didn't like it; I just clipped it out and reattached the clipped ends when this colour came up in the skeins. The hardest part was matching the colour changes across arms and body, and although it turned out rather well, it took a lot of thought and planning and matching of skeins because with Noro, the colour changes don't match from skein to skein even in the same dye lot. It all worked out and the colour really suits her, I think!

She asked for more sweaters from this pattern. The fact that it's a top down raglan that would work up really quickly now that I know how to fit it to her specifically, means that she'll get her wish!