Do I really want to do this?

I thought it was about time I got on to the "Anne" cardigan - with the lovely yarn from Shilasdair I was writing about the other day. There are four colours. One colour is used for the bottom band and the button bands (worked in moss stitch, one of my favourite stitches, NOT). The other three colours are used to make vertical stripes on the body of the cardigan (it appears the sleeves are plain, though as I noted before, the pattern is very sketchy and doesn't actually mention this). The garment is worked in one piece to the armholes and then divided for front and back. The upshot of this is that there will be twelve (yes, that's twelve) balls of yarn hanging off the work most of the time. Something I'm not really looking forward to.

However, I have said I will do it, so I will do it. Of course, we had to start by winding the yarn into "balls". I have a swift and there was a ball-winder somewhere in my past but who knows what black hole the thing went down, so normally, I put the hank on the swift and wind the yarn into a ball, trying to keep the whole thing as loose as possible. This time I couldn't bear the thought of twelve balls of yarn rolling round the place while I tried to wrestle them into some semblance of order. I cast about for a better method and came upon Jackie Fee's explanation of the Japanese yarn cocoon in her excellent book "The Sweater Workshop". It wasn't long before I had one of these:



A nice, soft yarn cocoon that's going to stay where I put it. Another eleven followed, all of which look very similar to the first. I searched about for more info on the yarn cocoon technique and came upon this blog where there is a video of the technique (if you scroll down and get past all the spelling stuff).

Here's a shot of the very start of the cardi:



Looking like exactly what it is - nine rows of moss stitch. Stand by for cat's cradle as the weeks progress.

I really can't help myself, can I? I just popped in to Shipston Needlecraft on Saturday because I happened to have used only one of the two skeins of Appleton's wool I got for the dark border of the Romance Shawl and I was pretty sure that I could get a credit for it. It just so happens that they have a sale on knitting kits at the moment. It just so happens that there is a kit I have been looking at and wondering at the price tag of £89 - wondering if someone was pulling someone else's leg. It just so happens that the self-same kit is now reduced to £15.75. It just so happens that with my credit of £2.25 the kit is now only £13.50. It just so happens that I am weak-willed and a sucker for a bargain. It just so happens that this is now cluttering up the living room:



not worth £89 but actually a net saving of money. I have been a good girl. (I think if I keep saying this long enough I will come to believe it.)

Back field?



At least you can see it now (last week it was under water).
As someone remarked, "Aren't the greens green?"