Saturday, December 04, 2010

The Limey was working in London last week, and it seems ages since I'd last been, so I took Friday off and went straight down after work on Thursday.

As is usual, the visit was filled with food and yarn: had Vietnamese food on Thursday night and Lebanese food on Friday. (We brought back some of the Lebanese desserts...I'm going to be so sad when we finish the little pastries filled with dates, walnuts and figs. I find a lot of middle Eastern desserts to be too sickly sweet, but these are just lovely.)

I also took the opportunity to visit Loop's new premises in Islington. I resisted the urge to buy yarn, and was really mostly interested in books. I was hoping they'd have one of Margaret Stove's lace books, but no.

I did buy the Winter issue of Interweave Knits and ye gods, I am absolutely enamoured of the Thandie Funnel Neck pullover by Mercedes Tarasovich-Clark.

(Photo from Interweave.)

I love everything about it: the colours, the buttoned-up raglan, the funnel/cowl neck, the brioche stitch, the shape, its amazing wearability...

I really want to knit this, but there are so many hurdles before this can be mine, all mine. 1) I have so much other stuff I have to knit; 2) I've never done brioche stitch before; 3) I have no suitable yarns, so would actually have to buy more yarn.

But the main hurdle is that the notes about stretchiness of brioche stitch, the different yarn weights, the gauge measured "slightly stretched" all come together into a possible nightmare of fit issues. I will cry if I don't get this sweater. And I will cry and throw things if I knit the sweater and still don't get it.

What to do? What to do?

1 comment:

Sinéad said...

Brioche is hard to get the hang of (well I thought so anyway) but once you do get the hang of it, it's very easy to do.
I've only made a scarf using it, and it was quite stretchy, but nothing disastrous. It makes quite a thick fabric.