Huge thanks to everyone who commented on my Northmavine Hoody post. I'm afraid that I ran out of time for replies this week. In the end, I've taken Belinda's sound advice and popped the yarn and pattern in the post to a good friend, who will enjoy working on it for me. It feels most strange to ask someone else to knit for me. Very, very odd. However, I instantly felt better about things. I'm not someone who likes to feel stuff is hanging over me, and a good clear out does me the world of good. I can't wait to be sewing the zip in and sporting it in the playground!
On to new projects, and I'm finally catching up with myself! Instead of telling you about what I was working on back in August, this post is actually about what is on my needles at the moment. I'm knitting on Willowherb - my absolute favourite of the designs from Rachel Coopey's Coop Knits Socks collection.
They started well, with a bit of twisted rib to get settled down into the design. I love twisted rib. It looks so smart and orderly - unlike my slightly less pleasing normal rib (I suffer with loose stitches at one end of the ribs). If you are very eagle-eyed, or just a knitting geek like me, you'll spot that I'm using the same yarn as I did for my Budleigh socks. It's Fyberspates Vivacious 4ply, and I can't say enough good things about it. It's completely perfect for this sort of textural stitch pattern.
I'm making good progress on these socks. I've turned the heel and finished the gusset decreases, so I will now steam through the foot and then crack on with sock number two. Satisfying knitting, which is just what I need.
I was talking to a friend today about different types of knitting for different states of mind, and it's interesting what's working for me at the moment. I don't have much knitting time at the moment, but when I do have time for knitting, I want to make something interesting. It needs to have some pattern, but be small enough that it won't take me too long to complete. Back before the children were placed with us I had quite a lot of knitting time, but I was feeling quite stressed with all the preparations. At that point, I needed a simple project, and it didn't matter if it was quite big. Do your knitting tastes change depending on your state of mind?