Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Ogee Tunic Blues

I've ripped and frogged
And stitched lots of knitting.
This doggone yarn has me
Fuming and spitting.

How can I deal with this yarn
That keeps splitting?
This ogee front
Will I ever finish knitting?

I'm just not feeling the love for this yarn or design at this time. If I can just get finished with the front, I think the rest of the sweater will work out okay.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Happily knitting along!

I have been knitting Norah Gaughan's design, the Ogee Tunic, from Knitting Nature. Although the front of the sweater looks very complex with its meandering cables, it really is quite easy to follow the charts if one remembers to take one line at a time and carefully read the symbols. I am enjoying knitting the garment; however, I am not thrilled with my choice of yarn. The yarn is 100% bamboo, a heavy yarn with absolutely no body. My least favorite feature of the yarn is its structure. It has 14 strands (yes, I said 14 strands) with no twist, that is to say that the strands lie mostly parallel to each other much like embroidery floss. It is so difficult to avoid splitting the yarn.

I will give a progress report soon.