This is the main reason I'm snowed under with projects at the moment...



...I snaffled this copy on Amazon.com which even with the postage still came out cheaper than the cheapest U.K. copy. I LOVE it!!

Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of patterns that have been in the other books I've bought but what makes it stand out against anything else are the beautiful pictures. It brings the garments right up to date and gives them a fresh new look. Plus, it's a cracking read, there are few knitting pattern books that have so much heart and soul poured into them and the stories and asides just raise it to a whole new level.

So, I decided I needed to start designing for myself, warts and all. And it has been warty recently! The fronts and back are now ready for the collar and as far as I'm aware, should work as planned. The sleeve however has been a whole new ballgame!

I'm now on my fourth?fifth? revision, refining as I go, the key learning issue being that no matter how much you swatch and calculate, once you start fiddling with the stitch pattern, things go wrong.... Or not necessarily wrong as much as not right....First time around the sleeve was too tight, or rather too stretched for the yarn I used. So I added more stitches at the beginning, then it was too wide..so we go for somewhere in the middle then start altering the stitch patterns a time or two...

Essentially, it's all part of the design process and whilst a few days ago, I would have moaned about how "work" knitting wasn't as much fun as following a pattern, it's now at least challenging so more interesting. The rewrites do slow the timetable down a bit though so I'm hoping it'll be more plain sailing soon. No camera at present so you'll just have to wait a wee bit longer for some pics.

Friday has been cool as Hubbie has been off, we've been to the cinema and stuffed ourselves on ice-cream and popcorn and we did a flying visit to Borders to pick up the latest Knitter's magazine. It's been a thoroughly indulgent day and I'm settling down withgh a good glass of plonk as I type - hope I'm still fit to knit to morrow!