With the socks out of the way (I’ve had them back since as they don’t fit. Always knew that short row heel didn’t afford the extra width I needed for the instep, still, I don’t mind at all as I’ve just got myself a new pair of socks and Mum can have the zig zag ones 
) I picked up Anne-Evilla and started to put in the final few rows of colour work.
I’ve missed working on this. Some projects, by the time I’m nearing the end, I am done and can’t wait to get them off the needles. Others, not many but a few, I really enjoy knitting and am in no rush to finish. This one is like that. It is such an interesting knit with just enough lace and just enough colour work that you don’t get fed up with either. It’s taken a bit of thinking about too. The colours I chose to knit this with have taken some thought and playing around with to get to run right (or as right as I can make them) and I’ve had to wind off part balls of yarn and try to match colours here and there. This is mainly because I chose to make all the lace sections in the blue yarn. I probably wouldn’t have had half the trouble if I had just let the colours do what they wanted.
I’ve now reached the lace collar section and obviously want that section in blue too. The last stripe on the body section is also blue. I contemplated putting in an extra brown stripe for proper contrast but the raglan decreases are also in this part and that would leave me with either too few stitches to work the correct lace repeats for the collar, or too many rows without any decreases, which wouldn’t lay flat. I decided to leave it as a blue stripe into blue lace. So far it’s looking OK. You can let me know when I’m done what you think 
Although there is only a small amount of knitting left to do, the finishing will take a while. The sleeve and back stitches are knitted onto spare yarn and the collar is then knitted from the front stitches as a square with a hole in the centre for the neck opening. This is then grafted onto the top of the sleeves and across the back so it is seamless. I can see this taking some time.
Last week, (I think it was last week. Perhaps it’s my age but time seems to be speeding up!) I finished the Houndstooth scarf.
It’s roughly 5 feet long and 7″ wide, woven from only two balls of sock yarn. It turned out to be quite fine and lightweight and ideal for tucking into my coat without too much bulk.
The sun came out for a moment so I quickly took a couple of photos before it disappeared again!
I’ve had some fine, slubby cotton/wool/silk mix yarn for sometime tucked away at the back of a cupboard. One of those purchases that seemed a good idea at the time but never came to anything! I put some of it onto the loom to weave a cushion cover but it’s not working out so I’m going to cut it off and put it down to experience. Some day I’ll find a use for that yarn! So, I’m looking around for another project, something not too big that I can play with for half an hour each evening. I’ve promised myself no stash of weaving yarn, not yet anyway. I used some of my savings to help buy this, so I’m on a diet! I have lots of old yarns around that could become something while I learn so I’m going to use them all up first.
With one knitting project coming to an end, I always find myself looking around for the next. This year I decided to try and be more choosy over what I knit. Before deciding on anything I’m going to ask questions that I suppose I should ask all the time, but don’t. For instance – Does that shape and style suit me? Will I really wear that once I’ve knitted it? And one of the major ones for me if I’m going to get a lot of wear from something – Is it practical? I tend to look at a picture, fall in love and dive right in. This quite often results in a UFO or falling out of love before I should. I’ve found that if I leave the pattern on the table for a few days or more and really look at it, I can find reasons why I probably shouldn’t knit it. A most recent example was a lovely cable number in a soft merino that I was itching to start, but after sitting on the idea for a week and going over the pattern and pictures, I could see design details such as the arm hole shaping and waist shaping that wouldn’t be right for me. I’m still looking around.
