Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer

I have this alarming tendancy to go back and re-knit things that I really like. I haven't done this yet for adult garments but for children's stuff and accessories, familiar breeds comfort for me. How many times have I knit plain socks or a version of the Debbie Bliss Smock jackets? The reality is, if one parent likes it, another will likely too, and there is nothing wrong with knitting the same pattern a few times, because classic are just that, classic.

This is daydream from Rowan Babies. This time, I've decided to try and work the same pattern from the top down. Why? well, one advantage of knitting from the top down is that there is a lot less seams to sew. For a baby garment, Daydream sure had a lot of sewing to get it gift-ready.

I took a few basic ideas in converting the pattern. Totted up the total # of remaining stitches for the back, sleeves and fronts and added 8 to that (for the seams) and kind of increased in the same ratio as the decreases. Well, I haven't gotten to any tricky bits yet and I'm still kind of scratching my head about how to do the scallopy border on the bottom of the sweater. I think the scallopy bits really make the sweater so I might just knit and graft, or do another lacy border like feather and fan... For the moment, I'm just winging it because it's too hot to think about doing anything else.

The sales

The annual summer sales at Liberty has been D-I-R-E, that is, unless you have a love for Plaid, Big Wool, Chunky Print, Tuft or the R2 rubbish that Rowan is still trying to get rid of (The j-cloth one was still there and the lurex too). There wasn't any Jaeger yarns in the sale. The Yorkshire Tweed line has been discontinued, but Rowan seems to have run down their stock because the only stuff that Liberty had was a few bits of the Chunky stuff. It was really disappointing. There was some bright orange and aqua coloured Kid Classic as well.

I can imagine people travelling to London just for the yarn and being greeted with what was there. This could explain why there was a bit of fighting for the day-glow yellow 4 ply cotton and glacé. (Like... whoa! I came all the way and I am not going home without some yarn!) There was also a minor tussel for the orange sherbet kid classic. (Tussel ended with Liberty consultant Carol went and got another pack out.)

The sales at John Lewis was much better. Mostly Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora was to be had and well, I had some. There was some alpaca silk, bits of baby cashmerino, the same Rowan stuff, Louisa Harding Ribbons, Noro Transition and the patons DK. Paton's DK was a very good price, £1.60 for 100g, so I bought 2 balls for day dream in the hot pink.

No doubt, I'm going to have to come clean about some of my purchases... this is what I got from Liberty. 3 balls of Gedifra for hats. I also got a ball of Rowan Chunky Tweed, which has become a hat already. These were the remaining balls. Really. (I have a list of people that I normally shop for and unfrotunately, nothing was purchased for that list... !)

As for the John Lewis stuff, I'll show what I bought at another time, there is the June in/out inventory to compile and fortunately, John Lewis's sale started July 1.

I've also did a bit of stash organisation and have listed a few things (Phil Ruban, Steppe, Jaeger Celeste, Trinity, Cadiz, Rowan Polar) in the Liberation link. So let me know if you're interested in any of it.

Posted by atu at July 2, 2006 06:00 PM | TrackBack