What's in my knitting bag...

I’m thinking about designating Wednesdays as knitting day here on the blog, so with that I’d like to introduce you to something I’ve been slowly working on.

Colourwork yoke cardi

I needed something relatively mindless to work on as I’ve been ill and generally lacking brain power for the last couple of weeks, so I cast on a colourwork yoke cardigan, knit in the round. And written in Icelandic. Because of course, that’s what everyone does when they are full of cold, right?

The pattern is called LÉTT – LOPAPEYSA með stuttum munsturbekk og hettu and I’m knitting it in some discontinued Rowan Scottish Tweed in a colour that makes my heart sing. And matches the throw cushions on the sofa. I’m nothing if not predictable.

I’m about eight inches (20cm) into the body of the cardigan and I’m enjoying it immensely. I’ve made a few modifications to the pattern as it was written as I’m adding more waist shaping and more stitches for my steek. I’m a confident knitter, but a two stitch steek was a little too gusty even for me. I’m doing a six stitch steek instead, figuring that since I have a five stitch button band, I’ll be able to try on the garment with some accurate notion of fit before I cut it up the centre front. The coilless safety pins at the bottom are holding the live stitches of my button band and marking the centre of my steek so I know where to start cutting. Those live stitches will eventually be picked back up to knit the buttonbands on 4mm needles, and the bands sewn on to the cardigan after the steek has been cut.

I’m knitting this up on my Addi Turbo fixed circulars, using a 4.5mm needle for the main part of the body. The stitch marker you see is from Stitch Candy on Etsy (though she doesn’t have anything in the shop as of the time I post this) which I won through one of my groups on Ravelry. They are lovely and make be smile every time I encounter one whilst I knit, which when lacking brain power is exactly what you want.