In the absence of much knitting I thought I would show my knitting bags, all but one bought from charity shops.
This is my favourite. The colours are brown and yellow, and the fabric a 1950s pattern. It may even be an original piece of 1950s fabric. The large design has been arranged very attractively so that the front and back are different. It is lined with a yellow plain cotton, except for one side that has a zig-zag embroidered owl on an off white cotton. I like the way it is placed inside the bag, and the mischievous look of the owl. To think that somebody has gone to all the effort of making this and then giving it away.
The same applies to the second bag. This is much more professionally made, probably from a pattern. The workmanship is perfect. I am fairly sure that the fabric is Rowan, all three of them, designed by Kaffe Fassett. These kind of murky colours appeal to me.
The third is a Gudrun Sjöden tote bag. There were several of these for sale last summer, so the charity had probably been given them because they were from last year's collection, 2012. I chose the one I liked best. I would like to wear Gudrun Sjöden clothes, but not only are they too expensive but they are made for people taller than me. Occasionally you see them in charity shops.
The fourth is a Cox and Cox toilet bag made in flower patterned green velvet. I like the design and the velvet makes it nice to the touch. Also, the lining is in the green cotton and not in plastic. This is my bus knitting bag. Fastening the zip makes it very secure.
The last one I have shown before, my felted basket. It sits on the floor next to the sofa for easy reach.
I have finished my friend's sweater, so I can go back to where I was at the end of June. The pile of blankets to be finished has reached five by now, and I have cast on for a cardigan for myself. It is normal for me to take three months to knit a sweater. It is strange in a way, because I can knit a blanket in six weeks - four is my record. It takes longer now, because I do less knitting than I used to. The problem with garments is that the thinking takes time, and I have learnt that a hasty decision is a bad decision. The books say that you should adjust patterns to your body measurements, and that involves a lot of decisions. The books also say that you should work out all the measurements before you start, after you have knitted your tension square. Well, I prefer to start knitting and making decisions as I go along. So when I hit a problem I may put the knitting away for two, three, five, ten days while I decide what to do next. This is what takes the time. With blankets I cast on and knit knit knit until it is long enough. So simple.
It is many weeks since I last wrote. First I bought a new computer - because the old one was old - and it took a while before I could get the new one to handle pictures the way I wanted. At the same time I was unwell. It need not have stopped me from sitting down to write a blog entry; it did not stop me from knitting, but I was annoyed at having my routine interrupted. Then I went away for a brief holiday, and that did me a lot of good, but it took me away from my computer and the internet as well. Now I'm back and I have decided to put mind over matter, ignore any pains and continue as I used to. It doesn't help that I think it more important to keep up with other people's blogs than to write my own.
About my own blog - so often I wonder if I should stop writing, as it is so difficult to get down to it. When I started I imagined I would get some followers, and I thought I had several when I wrote in Swedish. Now it seems there are only one or two left, so is it worth it? I do very little exciting knitting any more. I feel stressed by the extent of my yarn store, and that I can't stop adding to it, so I have decided to knit what I like knitting, rather than knit to use up the yarn I should. I want to continue to write this blog, for my own sake because it is useful to have an account of what I have knitted, and what I thought about it at the time. It seems so laborious to update my Ravelry page.
I have had time to start and finish blanket #140. I unravelled this tunic type sweater. I bought it several years ago, and I wore it for a while, despite the garish burnt orange colour, because it fitted me so well. Even the sleeves were the right length, ie shorter than normal. The yarn is light, and it has the same silk smell as Rowan Summer Tweed, but it is much lighter, so I think it is Jaeger Trinity - a cotton silk nylon blend according to Ravelry. I don't like using bright yarns like this in my blankets because they stand out too much, so I thought I would knit a different type of blanket using just three yarns. But when I unpicked it I found that the yarn was thinner than DK, so I had to reconsider. I decided to knit a thicker blanket instead, and adding a 4 ply to this and to other DK yarns, using size 4.5 mm needles. Usually I go for size 4 mm and DK weight yarn, so using two 4 plys together. It has occurred to me earlier that my blankets could be thicker, so it would be a useful experiment.
