Sunday 19 July 2009

Anhinga Takes Off

I've been going round and round and round on the off-blog project. It progresses by about a millimetre for each row (more after blocking, but not much) and at the moment a row is about 700 stitches. I opted to do the version which is 10 rows longer and have been very busy avoiding doing the sum 10 x 700 in my head.

Last night, just after I'd finished a row, I noticed that I had a small, deep, fresh cut on my left index finger. It's about a quarter of an inch long and was obviously done with something very sharp, but I have no idea what. I hadn't even been in the kitchen, and there was no drink taken. It's in exactly the same place as the bad cut I once gave myself with a bread knife, but I use a different sort of bread knife nowadays. A mystery. Anyway, until it's healed, I won't be working with very fine silk yarn which could a) open it up and b) cause me to bleed all over my knitting, so the inevitable has happened. I have cast on for Anhinga.

The preparations have been feverish. I have been following Smashing Puffin's progress avidly, and she has been very helpful, not to say patient, with my badgering questions about Rowan Bamboo Tape.

There has been a lot of this.


I'm not a very good swatcher. I try, but the results tend to be inconclusive. I also spent a lot of time dreaming about it on Friday night, but that didn't yield any practical help - I dreamt about a lot of things on Friday night so don't feel too sorry for me being reduced to dreaming about knitting.

I also looked up what an Anhinga is. I hadn't noticed that the other patterns in the booklet are all birds so I was bit surprised to learn that it is one of these.
Photo by Tom Davis
I can see why though.

All of this asking and swatching and googling hasn't actually made any difference to what I've cast on, except that I'm not making it a size bigger, which I might otherwise have done.


This is the back, and the colour is Gale, 713.

4 comments:

Fiona said...

Well, I shall now have to stalk you instead of SmashingPuffin! Well done for starting, I am still finishing off Other Things. Did you go with the gauge given in the pattern? - or are you going with the tension recommended for the yarn, and playing around with sizing?

Knitting Linguist said...

Ooh, I love that color! Which will look fabulous on you. Is that a tape yarn? I've never knit a garment from yarn like that, so I'll be very interested to see your results.

Mary Lou said...

And you label your swatches - I am verrry impressed. Maybe it will impress me enough to do it myself.

Anonymous said...

The Anhinga bird looks like Archaeopteryx to me. Your yarn looks beautiful, however, and your sweater will be glamorous.
-- Gretchen