This Time I'm Really Getting Going

OK, I've sorted it and I'm back in the running again. You may recall the fiasco with the ultra-fine cashmere and the rambunctious Pekingese. Then the several attempts to work out something which didn't involve 'leventy million stitches and billions of rows. Then the frogging sessions, repeated three times. Then the two or three weeks of trying to ignore the pattern, the yarn, all of you out there happily knitting away on your red sweaters. Heck, how come you all got it right first time - loved your pattern, loved your yarn, loved the work? Am I the only one to change ships midstream several times?

But finally I've straightened things out. I've yielded to the stern calls of the Alice Starmore Eriskay yet again. You remember the one, don't you?



In the original design created by Ms. Starmore (probably by the smoky light of a peat fire in a blackhouse on Stornoway during a force ten gale, because that's the kind of person she comes across as), the number of stitches required was beyond belief, as was the incredibly infitesimal gauge demanded. Now, having gained sense and realised that life is short enough as it is (look away those of you who follow the rules), I'm working with quintupled yarn, a size 5.50mm circular, and a rough ratio of 5 stitches to every 8 the original pattern requires. It's too early to say if I will stay the course, but I feel that if I don't I'll have failed everyone else as well as myself. Damn it, I will do it.

Yes, the patterning will take some working out, but it's not that difficult. The main body has a repeat over 16 sts so I just make sure I have a number divisible by 16. When I get up to the really intricate yoke, I'll just leave out some of the outlying pattern areas, rather like ignoring small fields that are just too far away to reach on an easy walk.

Do you think Alice Starmore will come down and attack me here in West Cork?

Jo
http://celticmemoryyarns.blogspot.com