It's a Stitch Up

So far, the resolutions are going pretty well. I have reduced the stash by 14%, from 22,500 m to 19,300 m. Addmittedly this is because I sold lots after the mohair incident, rather than having been knitting at super-speed. I have finished a major project, my ‘Emily’ sweater by Kim Hargreaves from her book Heartfelt: The Dark House Collection. It had been on the back-burner since October due to a combination of endless, mind-numbing stocking stitch and lots of shaping, requiring me to consult the book constantly.

I’d also fallen out of love with the dark aubergine colour, lovely in its own way but not very ‘me’. Despite the reservations, I’m really happy with the finished article (see pic).

‘Bonnie’ in progress

On to the next resolution – to tackle more challenging projects. Enter another patter from Heartfelt, ‘Bonnie’ the hat – ‘a slouchy lace hat’ with those magic words ‘suitable for the experienced knitter’. The hat is knitted in a really unusual textured lace stitch with a raised zig-zag pattern. Instructions are given to knit it flat on straight needles, but having a seam in a hat seems so unnecessary so I decided to knit it in the round. I thought this would be simple as all the lace I have knitted previously has had a plain stitch on the even row, ‘Bonnie’ however has lace in both directions! Knitting it in the round means re-charting every even row of the 12 row repeat! It’s all part of the challenge, and it turns out to be quite do-abe. For example, row 2 as charted:

Row 2: P1, *P2tog, yrn, P2, yrn, P1, P2tog, p3; rep from * to last 4 sts, P2tog, yrn, P2.

becomes (in my own shorthand):

Row 2: K2, yo, k2tog, [k3, k2tog, k1, yo, k2, yo, k2tog] to last st, k1

Simply work backwards along the row, from right to left, reversing Ps and Ks.

The finished hat is looking lovely – bring on the next challenge!