Today I have mostly knitted i-cord

I started knitting the Brandon Mably stripy jacket from the new Vogue Knitting (Spring/Summer 2007) last week, in the recommended yarn (Rowan Summer Tweed) but in different shades. The one illustrated in the mag is in fawns and hot pink with a bit of green, but I'm more of a blue girl. I already had quite a lot of Summer Tweed (I love the way it crunches, feel that silk, mmm) in powder blue and turquoise from a sweater that I started knitting and then forgot which pattern I was using. Yes, I realise that sounds bad, but there was a three-year gap and I did move house in between.

So I got some more shades of blue and the new Sweet Pea and started at one cuff. I decided that the 6th colour didn't look right so I brought some bright pink and decided to change the order of the colours slightly. I took the first go off the needles and started over again. This time it looked better, but the bright pink didn't work so I've ordered some Blueberry from eBay and I'm waiting for that. It must have taken me an hour, peering at the monitor and comparing different shade cards, and I'm not altogether sure it's going to work, but I feel slightly more constructive now. I want dreadfully to rush ahead with it and a small voice is pointing out that no-one else in the world really cares whether my stripes match or not, but I know I will be much happier knitting it if the colours are looking good. That's the whole point of knitting stripes, isn't it? So that you can see what the next one looks like.

And I had to buy a 100cm Addi circ in the 5mm size, even although my circulars case contains the empty packs for a 100cm and a 150cm, which I remember buying at great expense and inconvenience. It's a pity I can't remember where I put them or what I'm knitting on them.

So while I'm waiting for the next shade of blue Summer Tweed and the Addi circ to arrive, I am mostly knitting i-cord. I knitted myself a cotton sweater and altered the neck in a cunning way, and it hasn't worked. So I am knitting an i-cord to thread through it, and when that doesn't work I shall rip it back and do it again, properly.