Yesterday was the ghost of knitting past, today is the ghost of knitting future. You know that moment when you start sketching or swatching or even just telling someone about The Thing You Are Going To Make Next, and it starts to feel all real? I'm hoping that this post will have that effect.
Project 1: cannibalising the lovely Felinity's first ever sweater, which has been ripped back, rinsed out and is currently drying in a gorgeous mass of just slightly curly bundles.
Cannibalised Big Sack Sweater -> Cannibal's Big Sack Sweater Dress
Plan: a top-down raglan with very short sleeves, lace panels on the front and back, side shaping, and just keep going. With luck (and some decorative yarnovers and big needles), I'll spin the yarn out far enough to make a little mini sweater dress. I can't afford the one I want in Urban Outfitters - and I'm not entirely certain that their morals are all they should be, either - so it's knitted or nothing.
(I feel dreadful about ripping your very first project, Felinity, but I promise to love the sweater dress very very much. You do bind in your ends beautifully, though!)
Project 2: May I recommend The Natural Dye Studio, purveyors of absolutely gorgeous yarns (aw, baby's first plug.) I have a pair of alpaca/merino legwarmers in their "Ocean's Deep" colour scheme, a mermaidy purple and turquoise. They provide the silhouette of slouch boots without the expense, hoorah. I also made my brother a pair of socks in "China" for Christmas, and my mother was (ssh!) supposed to get a pair of lace socks in "Blossom", but I ran out of time. So, instead, she got some Elizabeth Arden 8-hour cream, and I am getting a beret:
Blossoming beret, Natural Dye Studio's Luxury Merino Sock Yarn in Blossom, knitted on 3mms
It is another madey-uppy one, and I am distinctly unconvinced. The fabric, post-increases, is 6 stitches garter stitch per 2 stitches of rib, and O, I don't know. We might end up ripping, I'm afraid. Look how pretty the yarn is, though!
Project 3: involves all sorts of exciting new things like dyeing. I have dyed fabric for sewing with great success, as everyone who's seen my lime-green linen jeans will tell you. (Mind you, there's also the silk crepe dress that I cut out and attempted to dye chocolate brown just before Christmas, still sitting in the corner in a sorry burgundy heap. But we don't need to talk about that.) I have 400g Hermit 100% Wool Shetland 4 Ply, also Ebayed. Alas, for it is muted blue, and I am no more a muted blue sort of person than I am a burgundy one. The plan is to turn it into skeins and stick one end in purple dye, and then, depending on how that works out, consider sticking the other end in some yellow dye. How can this possibly go wrong?
If we survive all that, I'm thinking of a skinny top-down raglan, with narrow cables and 3/4-length sleeves. Possibly even picot edging. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
