The weater at the start of the week became suddenly sunny (at least for a couple of days!).  I find the long dark winter very difficult, especially in the last month so I was really happy to see it come to an end!  The sunshine gave me a real spurt of energy and I found myself finishing up several jobs that had been lingering in their final stages for weeks.

I had two cardigans that I knit for myself over the past several months in between other projects.  I had the bones of the patterns written up but I just couldn’t bring myself to sit down and do the hard slog of finishing up the maths and writing…and charting….and drawing…..but they’re done!!!

The first one is a cosy wool cardigan that has an interesting construction method, I wanted to see if I could make a cardigan where the front and yoke was knit in one piece…..it took a bit of knitting and reknitting but I haven’t taken off the end product!  It’s very wearable, flattering and fun to knit.

The second one is on the last stages of the sleeve and is a summer lacy cardigan.  My second son is making his communion this summer and I really am not overly fond of buying clothes.  So for the last few months I’ve been mulling over this cardigan and am now almost finished it.  I love working lace but like it to be an accent rather than the total piece.  To make this cardigan work for me it is a lace bodice in a large gauge with a ribbed fitted lower section, a scooped neckline and a wide ribbed buttonband.

Now that the patterns are written at long last I can give them to my test knitters and finally the tech editor and they should both be ready for release by mid-May all going well.

I have a pattern coming out in Issue 12 of Yarn Forward.  Now I realise that as my last post was of the Necco Wafer Hoodie that it must seem that I’ve been doing nothing but knitting for the last few weeks.  However this top was actually knitted last year so it has been with me for a while!  For anyone here in Ireland/UK/Europe this yarn is easily replaced with any DK (22 sts and 30 rows per 4 inches) cotton yarn.  This yarn was mercerized cotton, meaning it went through a chemical process making it hold the dye better.  It does tend to make for a shinier slightly stiffer yarn.  In fact I think Wendy ‘Supreme’ would be very similar.

For anyone who lives in Cork you can get Yarn Forward in Eason’s on Patrick’s Street – however you might want to wait a few days as I’m not sure if this issue is in yet.  I think that Kerrie Allman’s plant-dyed tank Brazilwood has me tempted to get knitting.  Unfortunately that is one of the downsides of spending most of your knitting time designing – you don’t really have much extra time left over for knitting all the other wonderful patterns out there.

The Spring issue of the Twist Collective is out.  I’m very excited to have a pattern in it, Necco Wafer Hoodie. As you can probably tell from the pattern I love bright colors for children’s clothes, this sweater was great fun to knit.  They photographed it on such a cute baby, all of my children are too old now to wear it so I couldn’t see it worn until the photos came out.  It feels a bit like looking at someone elses work!

Go take a look at the issue, the designs and colors are just yummy.  Have you ever seem such a wonderful color as the yarn in Barber Pole?  I don’t knit many socks but I think these have me tempted!  The colorwork in Sleepy Monkey is just amazing.