Not Drowning but Waving: 48 today

by

Knitting comes over me in waves.
Sometimes it just laps gently at my toes and I paddle about in the shallows, dipping in and out of socks and hats and the occasional mitt.
On a long summer holiday I might swim a little further and start a sweater project or finish a shawl. 
And then… very occasionally, suddenly something comes over me and I dive headfirst off a high clifftop into deep deep water, trusting my instincts to know that when I emerge, gasping for air, the sun will be shining and the sky will be blue and an utterly amazing piece of knitwear will be blocking on the bright green grass.

This is Keito Dama 156.  You can buy individual patterns here. 

Remind you of anyone?! Though I can’t imagine FL wearing a “thumbie” cardi…



Phwoar – patchwork to the max!



Tempting…



Great over loose tops!



Sorry?  I can’t hear you!



Great use of self-striping yarn!

I have planned to knit from a Japanese pattern for a long long time.  I even bought a book, back in 2010.  And I stared at it for a while before I carefully replaced the plastic wrapper it arrived in and slipped it into a box of books “to keep safe”.

But this last  weekend was all about knitting.  My Stephen West Knitalong Project, the Geysir Stretch shawl, has been compelling and enlightening.  Did you know that if you just keep knitting, the fabric keeps growing?  That tiny triangle of fluff from Friday night is now so big I had to add an extension cable to my Denise circular needles to accommodate an entirely unlikely number of stitches… and still it grows!
And in a break from actual physical knitting, after doing the compulsory stretching exercises, what should I do but look at other knitting?  And one thing led to another and I found myself arrested by a Japanese pattern book.
Remember when Rowan designed jumpers like this?

I tried to talk myself down from the clifftop, but it was no use.  My mother sent me £20 for my birthday, as usual.  I could buy myself a pair of furry slippers as suggested or I could buy an inspirational wonderful Japanese knitting pattern book.  No contest. 

It’s on its way.  Prepare for a splash. I hope the water’s warm!

P.S.   It’s my birthday today.  I am 48. How did that happen?