My husband's back so work on the Cambridge Jacket has stopped. I'm done with both cardigan fronts. Next up, the back - lots of mindless TV knitting is in my future. Here's a progress shot, laid out against one of his cardigans for comparison.

Secret knitting and a Sunday in the city...

My husband's away for his weekly pilgrimmage to Ithaca which means I have time to knit his second wedding anniversary present - Interweave Knits' Cambridge Jacket in Rowan Calmer. The color is sage, a light, olive-y green. I chose Calmer rather than the called for Cascade 220 because the second anniversary gift is cotton. Of course, I'm about three months late, but I'm still really excited to give this to him. It's the first non-scarf, non-sock item I'm making for him. It's so expensive to knit for men. Those extra eight or so inches around the bust and several inches of height really add up to many more skeins of yarn.

Here's a picture of the jacket in progress against a cardigan he already has. I love the Rowan Calmer. It's so soft and squishy - not heavy at all like other cottons I have worked with. I just hope it doesn't have the other bad qualities of cotton - namely the growing problem.



My husband and I spent a very lovely day in the city on Sunday. We went to a cute place in midtown for brunch - Penelope's on Lexington Ave. The waiters and hosts were very nice even in the midst of the Sunday brunch rush and the food was delicious. Afterwards, we walked several blocks to the Morgan Library and Musuem. I loved the manuscript room with many first edition copies of books, sometimes owned by the authors themselves and personally annotated with their notes. They even had a back-of-the-envelope calculation on a real envelope by Galileo! And the Bronte sisters (and brother) kept journals covered in miniscule writing. It was very awe-inspiring to see these seemingly inconsequential squiggles that would later become such a part of our culture.

Swatched for Grannie Smith. I've never knit anything lace before where the size of the object matters and I'm a bit nervous. I'm not sure how to measure the swatch. The laciness makes the swatch very amendable to stretching in all directions, making pinning down a gauge difficult.

Here's the swatch. It's knit with size 3 needles in Jaggerspun Zephyr Merino/silk lace in color Suede. The yarn is incredibly soft. If I can actually manage to knit this thing, it'll be a very comfortable, lightweight sweater - perfect for throwing over the shoulders on a breezy day.

I just received the yarn I intend to use for Melissa's (at neoknits.blogspot.com) Grannie Smith lace cardigan. The pattern is written for Kidsilk haze, but I'm not crazy about the idea of knitting a fuzzy, mohair lace cardigan. I have in mind something a little smoother, with drape.

The yarn I will attempt to use is Jaggerspun's laceweight Zephyr merino/silk blend. This is the first time I'm trying to knit a sweater with this yarn. Previously, I've knitted shawls and stoles with it. I'm excited to see how this'll turn out. The color is Suede - a soft, brown color.

I've already knitted a swatch with size 4 needles, but the gauge is a bit off. I think I'd like a tighter look, so I'm switching to size 3 needles. The little bunch of tangled thread next to the cone is the size 4 swatch remnant.

I'm just trying to see if I can start a blog. I'll begin with a picture of my two most recently finished sweaters.

The first is the green gable that seems to be sweeping the knitting world these days. I jumped on the bandwagon after seeing everyone's lovely renditions. The reality is a little less than I had hoped for - which isn't really the fault of the pattern, but maybe more of the choice of yarn. It's a bit heavier than I imagined and I suspect that most of that is due to the cotton content and the gauge. I guess I shouldn't try to knit with cotton at a heavier than fingering weight gauge.



The second object is a cabled tank from one of the old Rowan spring magazines. The original pattern skimmed the belly button - a bit too revealing for conservative me - and was strapless. I added I-cord straps and lengthened it a bit. This was knitted out of a cotton 4ply yarn - much nicer in terms of feel (weight-wise) than the worsted weight Cotton Fleece.