Sunday Knitting

In my excitement at finishing two sweaters in such a short period of time I wanted to cast on for something new immediately. Now that my beloved Windsor Button is gone and purchasing yarn isn't quite so instant, this means working with what I have on hand already. Ages ago I queued the Geodesic Cardigan from Knitscene, bought the yarn, and put it with the magazine into a ziplock bag to await casting on. A year or so later, the time came. One evening at around 8pm, after a relaxing glass of wine, I grabbed my swift and ball winder and pulled out the hanks of yarn to wind them.

Mind you, the state of my house right now is such that I can't wind yarn on my sewing table where I usually do it. My ball winder is kind of like this, which means it needs to clamp onto a table, a very thin table. I forced it onto the edge of my kitchen table, and optimistically put the first hank of yarn on the swift. Soon, this is what I had.

Don't be distracted by the brilliant color. Look more closely. 

First, the stupid ball winder came off the edge of the table, which really was too thick. I had to hold it awkwardly in one hand while turning the handle with the other. Usually, this would work ok, and I'd just have to occasionally stop winding to straighten out the yarn or remove it from the swift arm where it is caught. But this isn't usual yarn. Malabrigo Lace is clearly the work of Satan and was wound into this hank by his evil minions.

There were eight ends, which was extremely confusing. They weren't even knots, as you sometimes find, just ends. This made it a little easier though, when it came so impossibly tangled that I couldn't undo it, hence the ball winder sitting uselessly aside with its partial ball while I began winding by hand with another end I found. I couldn't even take the partial ball off the ball winder and continue with it because the yarn feeds through that small eye and I'd have to undo the whole ball to feed it back through, which would be pointless. 

Occasionally, a ball of yarn will be a tad tangled. You put the hank on the swift and it seems one piece is looped around strangely, so you need to make a minor and obvious adjustment. This one, though, defied all explanation. As I began winding by hand, I regularly had to feed the whole ball through a weird tangle in order to continue. Sometimes the yarn inexplicably looped back and started coming off in the opposite direction. 

At 10:30pm - two and a half hours after I started - I finally finished up the fourth ball (and there should never be a fourth ball) of the hank, bits of bright blue lint coating my kitchen table, and me mad with exhaustion. I couldn't allow myself to even think about the second hank.

A few days later I was recovered enough from my trauma to tackle the second hank. When I put it on the swift, I examined it thoroughly. It turns out that a couple of feet of one end was woven in and around the the rest of the yarn, guaranteeing misery if you had the misfortune of beginning with the other end. Luckily, the second hank went much more smoothly and resulted only in one ball.

I felt rather betrayed by this yarn after my positive experience with the Whisper Cardigan. Malabrigo Lace, you are a fickle bitch and cannot be trusted.

You are my sunshine

Behold! A miracle has occurred!

No, I was not whisked away to heaven during the weekend’s scheduled rapture. But I did finish my Whisper Cardigan Saturday night, which was almost as impressive and surprising as judgment day would have been.


Pattern: Whisper Cardigan by Hannah Fettig from Interweave Knits Spring 2009
Yarn: Malabrigo Lace in Rhodesian
Needles: US 6 and US 3


Can I tell you how much I love this yarn? I love the color, I love the softness, I love everything about it. Had the sweater come out terribly I wouldn’t even have cared because then I would have had the pleasure of knitting something else with it.


This project was fraught with uncertainty. The pattern sizing was sketchy at best and I didn’t know until I finished the whole top portion whether or not it would fit. But I tried it on and it fit perfectly. Then came the small matter of picking up about a zillion stitches. Barely pulling through that ordeal, I began knitting downward, increasing on each side to create the little flaps on the front, which I feared that I’d find annoying. I was also concerned that the sweater would keep my shoulders too warm while leaving the front of my body chilly. But I wore it all day today and noticed only how luxurious it felt, and how much I enjoyed the burst of sunshiny color every time I passed a mirror. And after this many gray and rainy days I will take sunshine in any form.

A bit of orange

This will be the Whisper Cardigan from IK spring 2009. I want to build up my cardigans in number, styles and variety of colors.

So far the project is slow going. I had to make a trip to Windsor Button for a circular needle this size in metal. The joins on my interchangeables were making this project maddening. That was over a week ago and I still haven’t transferred it to the new needles. But when I do it will practically knit itself, I’m sure!

Oh, and the yarn? Malabrigo Lace. It is absolutely luscious.