The Lopi-Along

One of the things I have been getting up to on maternity leave is a fair bit of knitting. With J in the house I don't have the room to get out my scrap supplies as often as I would like, but that hasn't stopped me from accumulating a fair bit of yarn which is mainly housed under the bed. So I really should be trying to put a dent in that pile. But instead, I caught sight of a knit along about to begin on Ravelry, using Lopi Icelandic yarn. And of course, I couldn't resist, duly buying the required amounts of yarn in ash and dark grey heather.

The pattern we were knitting was this short cardigan. Now this would prove a bit of a challenge to me because I have never knit fair isle, or attempted (gulp!) steeking. But in for a penny, in for a pound - I decided to try both techniques in the same garment.

The cardigan knit up really quickly (after the rather irritating moss stitch border) - the yarn is a little tough on the fingers but after a while you get accustomed to it. I had to go up a needle size to achieve the correct tension but this is standard for me, a tight knitter. I decided to add a few rounds to the length, I know it's meant to be a short cardigan but I didn't want it riding up under my armpits! However I pretty soon realised I would need more yarn, and true enough, knitting had to go on hold while I waited for another skein to arrive. Very irritating!

Once I got onto the fair isle section I realised quite how addictive this style of knitting is! Being in chunky yarn, the pattern built up quickly which was satisfying.

I used the excellent Cotton and Cloud video tutorials to teach myself the basics of two strand knitting, including the continental style knit stitch which I gained confidence in as I went.

Very soon, I had completed all the knitting on my cardigan - if I hadn't run out of yarn it would have taken less than a week, which is impressive for a full size garment.

So now I just have to cut the steek, but that's another story...

Posted with Blogsy