I finised my Ergane cowl, in time to go with fall colors. We’ve had colder nights, bringing out lots of lovely oranges and yellows on the trees.
At the same time, it’s been up in the 70s (around 23-24 C) during the day with plenty of sunshine and a fresh breeze, which made yesterday a great day for blocking. Know what else was good for blocking? Having a nice little tub to lay things in!
So I sat down and wove in all the annoying little ends on Ergane (note – I try to wear in ends before blocking so I trim them after they’ve had a chance to settle into the fabric) and gave it a good soak before laying it out on the bed to dry.
You may notice there’s also a black sweater laid out which I haven’t talked about making. That’s because I finished it last spring pre-blog but haven’t had a good tub to soak it in until now. I’ve been wearing it unblocked. Not sure how many knitting rules that broke, but I’d thrown out my old raggedly black sweater before we moved to Germany so I’ll plead that I had no choice. Also, cat buttons. I rest my case.
As of today, Ergane is blocked, dried and all the ends trimmed. It’s squishy, soft, and has loads of texture thanks to all the different stitches it’s made up of. I can wear it like a big infinity loop, like a poncho, or doubled over and pulled up over my head. In short, it’ll be super versatile.
The only sad thing right now? It’s a gorgeous sunny fall day that is too warm outside for it. Life can be hard…
Having finished two large projects recently (the huge one of the blanket, plus the more modest cowl above), I decided to indulge in a little bit of “start everything” (I think TheEnabler may be a tad worried, based on several comments about how close is cowl is to being done, and all the things he plans to wear it with.)
On the knitting side:
On the left is the Tutti mohair/alpaca blend I got in Cologne. I’ve started a basic stockinette scarf. No doubt one skein won’t be enough, but I’ll decide how much more I need to buy when I have more of a sense of how much this one is taking. I’m knitting it up on size 7 needles.
I also pulled some yarn off the wall and caked it. The white will be for TheEnabler’s kilt hose and the orange and pink is for the Zinone top I started (see upper right). I’m doing the hip length version with only a partial lace back. While it advertises as a summer top, as I’m usig BFL, I expect I’ll be able to wear it comfortably in the winter.
And lastly, I finally started spinning some of my angora. I’m using my supported spindle and trying for a pretty fine single.
I think I may look for some silk thread to ply it with, for shine and strength, instead of plying it with itself.
Just a minor case of startitis. Nothing I can’t recover from.