It’s going to have to go.

After finishing Anne-Evilla I still have two fairly long standing UFO’s left (well three if you count the Autumn Cardigan that’s sleeping away somewhere but I’m not counting that for now).  One is the Lace Tank which I’ll finish, although it may have to wait until spring now, my motivation for lacy summer clothes is at a bit of a low ebb!

And the other is the Cabled Yoke Cardi.

Now this one is going to have to go.

I could write a long explanation about row gauge and fitting the pieces together and how, really, this pattern would have been far better if it was a seamless knit, but all that aside, at the end of the day,  I’ve pretty much fallen out of love with this.  I’ve found that knitting this yarn at this gauge is making the cardigan heavy and stiff and I’m just not keen at all.  I have seen one or two other patterns that would be perfect with this yarn and I’ve decided that I stand more chance of ending up with something I’ll love if I switch patterns.  One, as they say, for the frog pond then.  It’s a shame but it happens, which is what I was getting at when I wrote about trying to choose what I’m going to knit more carefully.  Only thing is, as a single, I have a feeling this yarn isn’t going to take well to being ripped back but I’ll give it a try and if it looses too much twist perhaps I can run it through one of my wheels and save it.

In an attempt to cut down on the stash, I’ve spent a bit of time recently looking carefully through patterns and if I have a yarn that I think will work, I’m putting the pattern and yarn together.  It may not end up being what I’ve chosen but it’s giving me a good idea of what I’ve got.  It’s proving to be a pretty good exercise.  I’ve found that I have more sweater amounts than I thought and some yarn that looked pretty uninteresting, when put with the right pattern, begins to hold new promise.  I’ve also found that I’m getting a bit short on sock yarn, not the outcome I wanted, but I suppose as they say, sock yarn doesn’t count as stash.  What I have most of though are groups of several balls, not enough for a sweater on their own but too many to disregard.  I’ve been giving these some thought and can perhaps see some fair isle type projects or quite a few vests in my future!

At the moment though I’ve started knitting the Victoria Yoke Pullover by Jennifer Lang from winter 08 Knits magazine.

It’s flying by, you’ve got to love seamless sweaters! (Well, I do anyway.)

I’m knitting this in Sublime pure merino DK in teal.  With the neckline on this I didn’t want to take any chances with something that may be even a little irritating in any way.  The yarn is soft and bouncy, as you would expect from merino, and I’m getting gauge on 3.75 mm circulars.  The original pattern has short sleeves but I’ll probably make mine long.  In merino with a high neck this is definitely a cold weather garment and as such I don’t see the point in short sleeves really.

Talking of cold, we’ve had a bit of snow recently.  I know that you can buy cards with robins on in the snow, but in reality, here, it just hardly ever happens so this picture is a keeper! It’s a little dark but I hope you can see his colouring.

This is a black bird that the Boys have named Arthur ( it’s a long story!) he’s here almost all day every day and has become so tame he sits in the garden waiting for you to feed him.  He doesn’t even bother to fly away if you go near him.

When this picture was taken he had just finished chasing some of the other birds away.  The colder it gets the more possessive about the food he becomes.  Blackbird numbers here have decreased by as much as 32% with the recent wet summers and so who can blame him if he’s a little touchy!  I make sure the others have some too though by putting up several hanging feeders that, as he cannot feed from them, he’s not interested in.

I’ve a bit of a run of bird pictures today, but I couldn’t resist including this one.  This cock pheasant is now free to roam as the shooting season ended a few weeks back.

I tried to get closer to get a better shot but I didn’t want to chase him away.  He’s living in the wooded area at the back of the field and ventures out every now and again to look for food.

In the garden, my cabbages are fairing pretty well.  At least the cold weather keeps the slugs at bay!

I did get out in the garden before the snow arrived and did a few, much needed jobs, but once the snow arrived what else was there to do but some indulgent baking.

Profiteroles with lashings of whipped cream and chocolate.  I’ll need to get back out in the garden and work some of the calories off at this rate!

That’s it.  I’ll leave you with one of my favourite pictures of our recent rare weather.