Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Stockinette to the Rescue

This is nowhere near seven feet of lace, and I am sick of knitting lace. Yes, I know, lace is wonderful, we love lace, I love lace. It is just the knitting of the lace that poses a problem for me.

And so, without even a little bit of guilt, I cast on some nice, plain stockinette, just to take the edge off.

My camera seems unwilling to process the color green. The actual color is darker and greener than this. (It is Elsebeth Lavold Classic Al in a colorway I can't currently put my hand on, but it's definitely green.) The pattern is Wendy Bernard's Opulent Raglan, from the fall 2008 Knitscene. It is the reason I stalked this issue of Knitscene and searched multiple stores to find a copy. (What is it with Interweave that they can't seem to issue subscriptions for this magazine? I know it's an occasional thing, but it always seems to come out four times a year, so why can't they just make it a regular thing and save us all a whole lot of bother trying to find copies of it?)

It's a charming pattern. I am loving the whole top-down, all-in-one-piece, no-seams sweater these days. What's that? Lazy? Why, yes--yes I am. Thanks for noticing! I am loving it so much that on Saturday, while waiting for my son to be weighed in for football (for which we had to drive--are you ready for this?--eighty miles round trip), I went to Barnes & Noble and bought Wendy's new book Custom Knits just for her terrific explanation of how to design top-down sweaters. Tammy just wrote a post about this book (and did one of the test knits that appears in it--go Tammy!), so I won't go into detail here, but it is good enough that I paid full price for it in a brick and mortar store just so I could take it home right away, which I almost never do.

Now, if I could just get some time to read it...

8 comments:

Lori said...

Wow that is a lot of lace... I don't blame you for wandering to a top down stocking stitch sweater!! It's looking nice, will have to watch for progress!

Tammy said...

I love the pattern. I can't wait to see how yours comes out. It's funny... I think I would've had a harder time with all the 2x2 ribbing than the lace. Maybe we need to join forces for some of these projects.

Darcys Knotty Knitter said...

Iam working on a lace scarf and it takes me 2 hours to get an inch so I wander myself to little projects that are quick then I mosey back to the scarf;)Hugs Darcy

sophanne said...

yes to that book. I haven't really had time to "read" it yet but I am treasuring owning it and it's in my "take it with me" bag.

I heart stockinette

SusanJane said...

I also want to knit that sweater, & since you are tons faster than I am, I'll get to see you in it first. Let us know if you modify it any. I would make it looser on myself than shown in the mag, since I have very generous frontal accessories that I don't want to emphasize. But I love the neckline.

Kim said...

Lace is lovely but give me a top down raglan (in stockinette or garter stitch) and I am one happy knitter. I am dying to get Custom Knits!!! Maybe I'll go to the book store tonight. Looking forward to a pretty green FO.

The A.D.D. Knitter said...

I've been eying that WB pattern as well. I completely agree with you about the subscription thing, such a pain to traipse around looking for it!

Anonymous said...

Oh, that book just landed in my Amazon cart. I've been thinking about sweaters and everyone that swims into my head wants to be knit top-down and in one piece. thanks!