autumn inspiration

i’m making some progress on my tea time cardigan, i’ve finished the left front and started the right. it knits up fairly quickly since it calls for 4 mm knitting needles. it’s nice to knit with somewhat larger needles for a change. but i prefer 3 mm or 2,5 mm most of the time. anyway, here’s the obligatory progress shot:

tea time progress

the latest issue of interweave knits arrived a couple of weeks ago, and i really liked several of the projects. i will probably not knit all of them, but i felt really inspired to plan for some nice autumnal knitting in the coming months. for those who know me also know that my favourite season is autumn. to me, that’s when the year begins. in this respect i really miss school. it was so much more obviuos then. new pencils and books that i would use during the coming year. often some new clothes to wear for the first day of school. he morning air is slightly chilly. and the beautiful display of colours as the leaves are turning from greens to yellow, red, orange and brown. and later in the autumn you find frost on leaves on the ground and ice on puddles. we’re soon there…

from interweave knits fall 2009

from interweave knits 2009

from interweave knits 2009

i haven’t bought the latest rowan magazine, number 46, but there are some lovely things in that one too that made me want to fill my knitting basked with wool, wrap myself in a blanket with a cup of tea beside me (or a small glass of sherry) and some knitting in my hands.

from rowan magazine no 46

from rowan magazine no 46

from rowan magazine no 46

from rowan magazine no 46

from rowan magazine no 46

from rowan magazine no 46

speaking of rowan, even though i do like some of their design, things have just not the same since kim hargreaves left them. i know i’ve mentioned this before, but i really think it’s a great loss to rowan. luckily for us kim hargreaves-fans, she has continued designing and her pattern books are available through rowan stockists, but primarily from her own website. if you haven’t exlpored it before i recommend that you take a look. her latest booklet “precious” is just out and there are loads of lovely things in her simple, elegant style. when you enter the site you can also find links to her previous booklets.

i’m looking forward to an autumn filled with knitting!

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garden green

whenever i add a new yarn to my ravelry stash i always check that wonderful function “pattern ideas” to see what other people have used that particular yarn for. even if i have an intended project for that yarn, you never know, you might come across a pattern that might be even better. i had no intended project for the ryc cashcotton yarn that i bought in edinburgh, so the pattern search function was even more welcome this time. after browsing a number of pages with suggestions, i fell for the tea time cardigan from the rowan classic summer brochure.

rowan classic summer

i already owned the brochure and i’ve found that classic summer has a number of very nice patterns, but this particular one has caught my eye before and i’ve menatlly added it to my to-do-list a long time ago. well, now i had the yarn, so all i had to do was cast on!

tea time cardigan

and what can possibly be lovlier that knitting a pretty summer cardigan in a summer garden environ.

garden knitting

i’ve actually knitted a bit further than this, i’ve reached the part of the right from where the sleeves will be set in.

the yarn is lovely to knit with, but i’ve read that it does pill quite a lot. i’m not surprised at that, such soft yarns often do. but i’m not discouraged, it will make an incredibly soft little cardigan. that might be a bit to warm to wear in the summer though!

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