St Brigid Begins

First of what will no doubt be many progress shots of St Brigid (a little dark, sorry).



This one's a beauty. I love the colour - that smoky blueberry is SO dreamy. Just my style. I also like the little swap I pulled for the side panel. St Brigid is a beautiful design, but it definitely falls into the Rectangle-Shaped-Tent category, and goodness knows I don't need any sartorial reinforcement of what nature has already given me. I wanted to add in some shaping, so I replaced the given Chart A (a double-moss panel) with the Rogue's shaped cable. They are almost the same stitch count at widest point. So far, I think it's working - you can see it above. The Rogue chart is the closed-loop triangular celtic cable near centre. The only thing I'm concerned about is the underarm division - I haven't completely decided what to do with these stitches, since in the original pattern the double moss panel continues up the front and back of shoulder, and meets the saddle sleeve. Since I have replaced this panel with the Rogue cable, I will have to be inventive once I reach the underarm. We'll see how it goes - suggestions would be more than welcome.

I think I may regret my choice of yarn here: the Paton's Classic Merino may be just a little impermanent for a sweater requiring such a lot of work. However, cash was a consideration here, and I just couldn't face ordering the yarn, sight unseen, from the Starmores themselves, at a price tag of about $200US before shipping. I guess in some ways I'm still kind of a novice knitter, in that I can't seem to reconcile it to my conscience to spend that much on one sweater. Maybe this sweater will be my learning experience. Still, I would hate to get the yarn in the mail, and find that the colour wasn't what I expected, or I hated the feel of it, or whatever, and be unable to return or exchange it.

In other news, I have started being creative with stash storage. What do you think?



I think it's a winner. Eventually, this whole bookcase will probably be devoted to knitting - I think it's more than reasonable, considering how much of my life is absorbed by the Craft.