Spring Vegetables

I'm doing another pattern from Fancy Feet with the Kauni. I've got past the length of maroon yarn, thank goodness. It's really one of my least favourite colours, maroon /burgundy. I'm only happy to see it in a bottle or a glass.
I'm knitting orange and green now; the orange is real carrot and the green is young and fresh so it's like knitting with the diced vegetables for Spring Vegetable Soup - three carrot and one celery, three carrot and one celery...
I'm doing this with a 4mm bamboo circular. I tried 3mm, the recommended size, and 3.5mm, but they both came up very tight. I expect this yarn to bloom and soften quite a lot when it's washed for blocking so I thought it best to come up to 4mm. I even swatched with 4.5mm, but came back down to this.

I promised to photograph a swatch of the Malabrigo, but the weather has been so grey that it hasn't seemed worth it. The sky is much the same colour as the yarn, but without the depth and shifting shades. I've been poring over the patterns for the Rib Warmer, and peering at other people's, but I still foresee a lot of ripping out in my immediate future. I'm going to have to size it up to accommodate my bazooms, but I have narrow shoulders so I will have to be careful not to make it too wide at the straps.

I think this may be one of those patterns that one has to work through, only to arrive at the end and say, 'Oh, I see!' and tear the whole thing out and do it again properly.
These are 6mm needles in a lavender blue plastic, which I bought because I liked the colour. I find it very difficult to knit with long needles now, as clamping the right one under my arm brings it far too close for me to see properly unless I take my glasses off. I find it a bit uncomfortable to hold them on my lap, but I had better get used to it or I'll have to give away all my long needles.

Ah, the wonders of youth, when one could knit and watch the television at the same time without waggling one's head about behind a few-hundred-pounds'-worth of spectacles.

Kauni Continued

I've done a few more bands of this pattern. When you first look at it you see the dark birds flying to the left, but if you let your eyes unfocus, you'll see the light birds flying to the right. Or at least I do.
I can't decide whether to do any more of this design, or whether to start another one.
I'm not the only blogger to hit upon the combination of Kauni and Anna Zilboorg's Fancy Feet: String Theory has done it too and is making a wonderful Turkish cardigan.

Sylvester on the Runway

A kind commenter suggested that I might knit a scarf for Sylvester to keep for himself. That's a nice idea, and I'm considering what might be the best yarn, but meanwhile I've let him model an umbilical hat.

This is for the same baby who's getting the Pumpkin Hat etc., and is made from Regia Classic Colors sock yarn in Candy, from Jannette.

You can see it before blocking and after.




As you can see, the yarn has relaxed quite a lot.





My camera has a setting for Red Eye but not for Red Nose.


I like this yarn for a Coming Home From Hospital Baby Hat, because it has a little bit of blue and a little bit of pink and yellow and purple so it covers all eventualities.