The Beginning of Effie

I got a chance to dig into my Kim Hargreaves Precious magazine on Friday night. 

I was so excited, that I casted on immediately.

This is 1 pattern repeat.

This is about 10 more.

All in all, I have to do about 18 repeats for the edging of the back of the sweater, and repeat the same thing for the front of the sweater.  However, I noticed that I don't really like purling with this yarn, so I will be tweaking the pattern a bit, and making this in the round instead of pieces. So this means that I have to do 18 more pattern repeats, seam it all together, then pick up the stitches on the edge for the body of the sweater.  Wish me luck!

This yarn is very delicate, but once you get the hang of it, your knitting speed goes back to normal as if you were knitting a plied yarn that wasn't so fuzzy.  I am more comfortable with it now, and I am not as scared of the project as I was before.

I went to a Knit+Wine event on Sunday, and was only able to make it through 1 pattern repeat.  It turns out that after the delicious Reisling I had, I was forced to squint to see the stitches. LOL!  As if I didn't know what would happen.  No worries, I had another project with me that was easy knitting.  I didn't have to look at what I was knitting at all!

Wanna Be Startin' Sumthin' .... Gotta Be Startin' Sumthin'

I am preparing to take on what I feel is one of the most challenging endeavors in knitting ever.
Drumroll please...........

Knitting Kidsilk Haze on size 3 needles.

I have fallen in love with Effie from the moment I saw her. She is delicate, romantic, girly, and fluttery.  She is akin to a ballerina in my eyes, or a fairy princess from some disney cartoon that has classical music playing in the background.

The yarn is Rowan Kidsilk Haze in Marmalade, that I bought over 2 years ago when Knit New York had a sale.  They have since closed their doors, and the pattern I had originally bought the yarn for was kicked out the door when Effie arrived.  Effie has kicked Sylvi off the list of my 10 in 2010 projects as well. I am waiting 2 more days for my "Precious" by Kim Hargreaves book to arrive.

Why would I say that this is a challenging knit?  Firstly the yarn is very delicate, and frogging is not a possibility, so I have to really pay serious attention when I knit, and have great lighting, and not have my tastebuds divulge on Lambic Frambroise at La Casita yarn shop.  Secondly, this will be my first fine-gauge sweater, and I have been notorious for having chunky sweaters lay around for months, so this will be a great test at keeping focused. I know that this is surely not an instant gratification project, and I am ok with that. Thirdly, I have never done ruffles before, but they look so cute that I want to give them a try.  I can honestly say that I am very comfortable that this is stockinette, and the only real thing I have to worry about is doing my shaping decreases in the right spot.  I am contemplating knitting in the round, because I hate seaming. However, I have to study the pattern before I go converting things.  I hear that British knitting patterns are written very different than American ones.  But, I have no fear.  One of the coolest knitting buddies I have is from Great Britain.

Without further adieu, here is my newly updated pie chart of 10 in 2010 projects.